Bentley v. Spartanburg Cnty.

• Decision Date: 10 August 2012
• Docket Number: No. 27140.,27140.
• Citation: 730 S.E.2d 296,398 S.C. 418
• Parties: Brandon BENTLEY, Appellant, v. SPARTANBURG COUNTY, and S.C. Association of Counties SIF, Respondents.
• Court: South Carolina Supreme Court

398 S.C. 418

730 S.E.2d 296

Brandon BENTLEY, Appellant,

v.SPARTANBURG COUNTY, and S.C. Association of Counties SIF, Respondents.

No. 27140.

Supreme Court of South Carolina.

Heard March 8, 2012.

Decided July 11, 2012.

Rehearing Denied Aug. 10, 2012.

Jeremy A. Dantin, of Harrison, White, Smith & Coggins, of Spartanburg, for Appellant.

Richard B. Kale Jr., of Willson Jones Carter & Baxley, of Greenville, for Respondents.

Grady L. Beard, B. Gibbs Leaphart Jr., and Nicolas L. Haigler, all of Sowell Gray Stepp & Laffitte, of Columbia, for Amicus Curiae.

Chief Justice TOAL.

Brandon Bentley (Appellant), a deputy sheriff with the Spartanburg County Sheriff's Department, alleged that he developed Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PSTD) and depression after he shot and killed a suspect who attempted to assault him. An Appellate Panel of the Workers' Compensation Commission (Appellate Panel) unanimously found that Appellant failed to meet his burden of proof in establishing a compensable mental injury that arose out of an “unusual or extraordinary condition” of employment for a Spartanburg County deputy sheriff. We affirm.

Facts/ Procedural Background

On October 21, 2009, Appellant was on road patrol when he was dispatched to a residence in Spartanburg following a call involving disturbances between neighbors. As he arrived at the scene, he saw a man in khaki shorts standing just outside the carport of the residence. He stepped out of his car and asked the man to approach him to talk. The man refused to cooperate and exchanged words with Appellant before walking toward Appellant with an umbrella raised in an “offensive posture.” Appellant issued several commands for the man to drop the umbrella. In response, Appellant claimed the man threatened to take Appellant's gun and kill him. Appellant then fired one shot “center mass” at the man's chest resulting in his death.

Following this incident, Appellant began to suffer psychological symptoms including anxiety and depression and sought treatment at Post Trauma Resources in Columbia. Based on his psychological symptoms, his psychiatrist and psychologist concluded that Appellant was unable to work.

On March 10, 2010, Appellant filed a Form 50 to claim workers' compensation benefits. After a hearing, the Single Commissioner found that the October 21, 2009 event was not an unusual or extraordinary condition of Appellant's work, and Appellant had not suffered a compensable mental injury by accident arising out of his employment. The Commissioner noted that deputies received training on the use of deadly force and that Appellant admitted he knew he would sometimes be required to use deadly force in the course and scope of his employment. Appellant then appealed to the Appellate Panel, which affirmed the Commissioner's Order and denied Appellant's claim. Appellant filed an appeal and this case is before this Court pursuant to Rule 204(b), SCACR.

Issue

Whether the shooting and killing of a suspect by a deputy sheriff while on duty is an extraordinary and unusual employment condition such that mental injuries arising from that incident are compensable under the Workers' Compensation Act.

Standard of Review

The South Carolina Administrative Procedure Act (APA) governs appeals from the decisions of an administrative agency. S.C.Code Ann. § 1–23–380 (Supp.2011); Lark v. Bi–Lo, Inc., 276 S.C. 130, 134–35, 276 S.E.2d 304, 306 (1981). Under the APA, an appellate court may not substitute its judgment for that of the agency as to the weight of the evidence on questions of fact, but it may reverse when the decision is affected by an error of law. S.C.Code Ann. § 1–23–380(5). If the findings, inferences, conclusions, or decisions of that agency are “clearly erroneous in view of the reliable, probative and substantial evidence on the whole record,” a reviewing court may reverse or modify. Id. Substantial evidence is not a mere scintilla of evidence, nor evidence viewed blindly from one side of the case, but is evidence which, considering the record as a whole, would allow reasonable minds to reach the conclusion the administrative agency reached. Pratt v. Morris Roofing, Inc., 357 S.C. 619, 622, 594 S.E.2d 272, 274 (2004).

Analysis

Appellant argues he sustained a compensable mental injury that arose from an extraordinary and unusual condition of employment. We disagree.

Workers' compensation pays an employee benefits for damages resulting from personal injury or death by accident arising out of and in the course of the employment. S.C.Code Ann. § 42–1–310 (Supp.2011). In determining whether a work-related injury is compensable, the Workers' Compensation Act (Act), S.C.Code Ann. §§ 42–1–10 to –19–10 (1976 & Supp.2011), is liberally construed toward the end of providing coverage rather than denying coverage in order to further the beneficial purposes for which it was designed. Shealy v. Aiken Cnty., 341 S.C. 448, 535 S.E.2d 438 (2000) (citation omitted). Any reasonable doubt as to the construction of the Act will be resolved in favor of coverage. Mauldin v. Dyna–Color/Jack Rabbit, 308 S.C. 18, 22, 416 S.E.2d 639, 641 (1992).

Some context regarding the evolution of mental damages in workers' compensation will illuminate the framework which necessarily binds this Court in resolving this case. As set forth by Professor Larson in his treatise on workers' compensation, work-related injuries fall into three categories: 1) mental stimulus causing physical injuries (mental-physical injuries), 2) physical stimulus causing mental injuries (physical-mental injuries), and 3) mental stimulus causing mental injuries (mental-mental injuries). Arthur Larson, Larson's Workers' Compensation Law § 56.06[3] (2011). Historically, given the suspicion surrounding mental injuries, courts and legislatures refused to award compensation for mental injuries, or if they did, required that covered mental injuries be accompanied by a physical manifestation. See id. at § 56.06[l][b]. A majority of states now recognize the compensability of purely mental-mental injuries, injuries without accompanying physical manifestation, although a large number of states, including South Carolina, place heightened restrictions on recovery by requiring that the precipitating stressor be unusual and extraordinary compared with normal working conditions.¹Id. at § 56.06[3]; Stokes v. First Nat'l Bank, 306 S.C. 46, 410 S.E.2d 248 (1991); Davis v. Workmen's Comp. Appeal Bd., 561 Pa. 462, 751 A.2d 168, 170 (2000) (denying workers' compensation to police officer suffering from PSTD because encountering traumatic events was normal for a police officer).

South Carolina's standard for recovering benefits for mental-mental injury is codified in section 42–1–160 of the South Carolina Code, which provides:

(B) Stress, mental injuries, and mental illness arising out of and in the course of employment unaccompanied by physical injury and resulting in mental illness or injury are not considered a personal injury unless the employee establishes, by a preponderance of the evidence:

(1) that the employee's employment conditions causing the stress, mental injury, or mental illness were extraordinary and unusual in comparison to the normal conditions of the particular employment; and

(2) the medical causation between the stress, mental injury, or mental illness, and the stressful employment conditions by medical evidence.

S.C.Code Ann. § 42–1–160 (emphasis added).²

Although we are constrained to decide this case according to the standard mandated by the General Assembly, we offer our opinion that this standard should be updated to account for the scientific and technological progress in medicine and psychology, which have undermined the old public policy argument used to deny mental-mental recovery.

Historically, a lack of understanding about mental-mental injuries fueled the negative reaction toward allowing recovery. The traditional justifications for imposing barriers to recovery were that claims for mental-mental injuries were easier to falsify than claims for physical injuries, and any recovery for mental anguish damages must be limited with bright line rules lest the courts be flooded with litigation. See Frances C. Slusarz, Work Place Stress Claims Resulting from September 11th, 18 Lab. Law. 137 (Fall 2002); Jon L. Gillum, Note, Fear of Disease in Another Person: Assessing the Merits of an Emerging Tort Claim, 79 Tex. L. Rev. 227 (Nov. 2000). However, those in favor of allowing broader recovery point out that advances in medical science have made it easier for medical professionals to diagnose and verify the validity of mental injuries, enabling courts to weed out fraudulent claims. See Towns v. Anderson, 195 Colo. 517, 579 P.2d 1163 (1978) (finding that “the medical profession has made tremendous advances in diagnosing and evaluating emotional and mental injuries. While psychiatry and psychology may not be exact sciences, they can now provide sufficiently reliable information concerning causation and treatment of psychic injuries, to provide a jury with an intelligent basis for evaluating a particular claim.”); Eckenrode v. Life of Am. Ins. Co., 470 F.2d 1, 3 (7th Cir.1972) (citation omitted) (stating that mental anguish can be diagnosed and verified by health professionals). In addition, proponents note that claims of physical injury, especially in relation to damages for pain and suffering, can be as susceptible to fraud as mental-mental injuries, rendering it illogical to allow recovery for one while denying it for the other. Molien v. Kaiser Found. Hosps., 27 Cal.3d 916, 167 Cal.Rptr. 831, 616 P.2d 813, 821 (1980) (noting the rule requiring mental injury be accompanied by physical injuries “encourages extravagant pleading and distorted testimony” by claimants trying to fit their emotional anguish claims into the physical injury framework). We agree with these proponents for reform.

We do not believe that removing South Carolina's...