Which situation would be covered under the employer’s liability coverage of a workers compensation policy?

The scenario involving the employer's failure to maintain equipment, resulting in an injury, is correctly identified as a situation covered under the employer’s liability coverage of a workers' compensation policy. This type of coverage is specifically designed to protect employers against claims made by employees for injuries that may not be associated directly with a typical workers' compensation claim.

In this situation, the employer's negligence in maintaining safe equipment creates a liability that is separate from the standard workers' compensation framework. If an employee sustains an injury due to faulty or poorly maintained equipment, the employer could be held legally responsible for that negligence, leading to potential lawsuits and claims for damages. Therefore, this incident falls under the employer’s liability coverage, which addresses situations where an employer's actions (or lack of action, such as maintenance) contribute to an employee's injury.

The other options involve circumstances where liability may not extend to the employer's actions directly leading to the injury, such as an employee disregarding safety protocols, incidents occurring during non-work-related activities (like lunch breaks), or situations involving the employee's substance use at the time of the injury. These scenarios typically do not invoke the same employer liability coverage as they fall under different considerations within workers' compensation policies.