Psychiatric Injury as a Compensable Consequence of an Industrial Injury—there Are Some Limits
| Publication year | 2020 |
| Author | Sure Log, Esq. |
Sure Log, Esq.
El Segundo, California
Under Labor Code section 3208.3(b)(1), a psychiatric injury must be caused predominantly by actual events of employment to be compensable. The courts have long recognized that an employee's physical injury may be considered an actual event of employment within the meaning of that section. (Lockheed Martin Corp. v. WCAB (McCullough) (2002) 96 Cal.App.4th 1237, 1249.) Although Labor Code section 4660.1(c) limits the availability of permanent disability benefits for a psychiatric injury flowing from a physical injury for injuries occurring on or after January 1, 2013, the statute does not change the analysis of causation under Labor Code section 3208.3. (See Liu v. Hawaiian Gardens Casino, 2017 Cal.Wrk.Comp. P.D. LEXIS 315.) Labor Code section 4660.1(c) doesn't affect the availability of other benefits. Although a psychiatric injury may be a compensable consequence of a compensable physical injury, the courts also have been clear that not all consequences flowing from a physical injury are compensable. This article addresses a recent case that illustrates some of those limits.
In Rodriguez v. WCAB (1994) 21 Cal.App.4th 1747, the Second District Court of Appeal explained that:
[A] compensable consequence of the original industrial injury is "a secondary incident which, although perhaps a new and distinct injury, is not a new and independent injury but rather the direct and natural consequence of the primary incident" [citation].
(Id. at p. 1759.)
Rodriguez held that a psychiatric injury arising out of the litigation process is not compensable. Specifically, it concluded that an employee's reaction to an agreed medical examiner's opinion and the reliance of an employer or insurer on that opinion are not compensable consequences of the original industrial injury.
Still, there have never been any clear standards on the types of stressors that would be compensable flowing from a physical injury. In County of Contra Costa v. WCAB (Guthery) (2005) 70 Cal.Comp.Cases 1496 (writ denied), the WCAB held that an applicant's psychiatric injury was compensable when financial difficulties following his physical injury had caused it. The applicant experienced homelessness and unemployment following his industrial injury, and both reporting psychologists found that his psychiatric injury was linked to the psychosocial difficulties stemming...
To continue reading
Request your trial