Work-related Stress Claims
| Jurisdiction | Colorado,United States |
| Citation | Vol. 08 No. 1989 Pg. 1529 |
| Pages | 1529 |
| Publication year | 1989 |
1989, August, Pg. 1529. Work-Related Stress Claims
The number of stress claims in worker's compensation law has increased dramatically. For example, in California (which has the most liberal rule for compensability for a stress injury), the number of stress claims filed in 1986 was 6,812. That figure is up from the documented claims of 1,282 in 1980 and 4,236 in 1984.(fn1) In light of this claim potential, an examination of the types of mental and emotional stress claims should prove helpful to the worker's compensation practitioner.
This article discusses the types of stress claims that exist and the case law that guides such claims on injuries previous to July 1, 1986, as well as the Colorado statute that deals with injuries occurring after July 1, 1986.
Mental and emotional stress claims can be categorized as follows:
1) physical-mental, where a physical injury causes or aggravates a mental condition;
2) mental-physical, where mental or emotional stress results in a physical condition or injury; and
3) mental-mental, where mental or emotional stress results in a mental or emotional injury which is disabling.
In order to recover under the Workmen's Compensation Act(fn2) ("Act"), an injury or death must be proximately caused by an injury or occupational disease arising out of and in the course of employment.(fn3) Under these conditions, a physical injury such as a back injury or carpal tunnel disease is normally compensable.
However, the original statute did not make clear what happens if the injury or disease precipitates a mental condition which prolongs or aggravates the disability. That issue was addressed in the 1985 case of Jakco Painting Contractors v. Industrial Commission of the State of Colorado.(fn4) In Jakco, the Colorado Court of Appeals determined that where a work-related injury causes a deranged mental condition which proximately causes the claimant's suicide, the dependents are entitled to compensation. Applying the "chain of causation" test, the court determined that since the original physical injury was compensable, the resulting mental derangement was also compensable.
The leading case with respect to mental or emotional distress as the cause for a physical injury that occurred prior to July 1, 1986, is the case of City of Boulder v. Streeb.(fn5) Streeb was a Lieutenant in the Boulder Fire Department and had suffered a great deal of tension and frustration relating to his work. On the day the claimant was to have returned to work following a ten-day vacation period, he died of a heart condition.
The claimant was determined to have died from a cardiac arrhythmia and the Referee (now Administrative Law Judge) determined that the main sources of stress in the decedent's life were his failure to receive a promotion within the Fire Department, the rejection of his proposals for mandatory paramedic training and the cumulative tension between the claimant and his superiors. Based on this record, the Colorado Supreme Court determined that job-related mental or emotional stress may cause an injury or occupational disease which will support an award for disability or death resulting from the injury or occupational disease.
In the case of City of Aurora v. Industrial Commission,(fn6) the Colorado Court of Appeals first addressed the compensability of a mental disability arising from a mental occupational disease. The occupational disease statute, at that time,(fn7) allowed compensability for a disease (1) arising out of the work-place, (2) as a result of the exposure occasioned by the nature of the employment, (3) which could be fairly traced to the employment as a proximate cause, and (4) which did not come from a hazard to which the worker would have been equally exposed outside of the employment.
In City of Aurora, the claimant was an undercover narcotics agent...
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