Delaware Tire Center v. Fox

• Decision Date: 22 March 1979
• Citation: 401 A.2d 97
• Court: Delaware Superior Court
• Parties: DELAWARE TIRE CENTER, Employer-Appellant, v. Louise M. FOX for Earl A. Fox, Jr., Claimant-Appellee.

Page 97

401 A.2d 97

DELAWARE TIRE CENTER, Employer-Appellant, v. Louise M. FOX for Earl A. Fox, Jr., Claimant-Appellee.

Superior Court of Delaware, New Castle County.

Submitted Feb. 6, 1979.

Decided March 22, 1979.

Upon appeal from the Industrial Accident Board. Affirmed.

Alfred M. Isaacs of Flanzer & Isaacs, Wilmington, for employer-appellant.

Oliver V. Suddard, Wilmington, for claimant-appellee.

BIFFERATO, Judge.

This is an appeal by the employer from a decision rendered by the Industrial Accident Board which awarded compensation to the dependents of an employee who committed suicide.

On April 13, 1973 the decedent, Earl A. Fox, Jr., suffered a compensable industrial injury. Due to the pain he was experiencing, the decedent was unable to return to work and, on June 8, 1977, he died of a self-induced multi-drug overdose which resulted in acute respiratory failure.

In February, 1977, Dr. Pierre LeRoy referred Mr. Fox to Dr. Irwin Weintraub. This referral was initiated by Dr. LeRoy's concern that psychological factors might be contributing to Fox's disability and inability to overcome the pain and incapacitation from which he was suffering.

In his examination of the decedent, Dr. Weintraub found that Fox suffered, before and after the accident, from depression, anxiety and a feeling of being incapable of fulfilling the responsibility of providing for his family. Dr. Weintraub also testified that Fox had a drinking problem and that sometime in 1975 the decedent attempted suicide. He further stated that the accident of April 13, 1973 caused an emotional disorder by which Fox was incapacitated by an exaggerated depression which was due to the pain he was suffering and his inability to work. Dr. Weintraub opined that this mental condition precluded Fox's ability to reason clearly, work effectively and feel secure. He also stated that the injury was a cause of Fox's suicide, but that he had the capacity to commit suicide willingly and knowingly.

Basing its decision on the testimony of Dr. Weintraub, the Board found that decedent's act of suicide was the result of an uncontrollable impulse. It believed that Fox's state of continuous pain coupled with anxiety and depression deprived him of the ability to understand or appreciate the consequences of his death. Upon those findings, the Board granted an award to the claimant.

Delaware Tire urges this Court to reverse the Board's findings because 19 Del.C. § 2353(b) bars the claim and that the findings were not based on substantial evidence.

19 Del.C. § 2353(b) states:

"(b) If any employee be injured as a result of his intoxication, because of his deliberate and reckless indifference to danger, because of his wilful intention to bring about the injury or death of himself or of another, because of his wilful failure or refusal to use a reasonable safety appliance provided for him or to perform a duty required by statute, he shall not be entitled to recover damages in an action at law or to compensation or medical, dental, optometric, chiropractic or hospital service under the compensatory provisions of this chapter. The burden of proof under this subsection shall be on the employer."

In this section "wilful" has been defined as an act done intentionally, knowingly and purposely without justifiable excuse. Carey v. Bryan & Rollins, Del.Super., 10 Terry 387, 49 Del. 387, 117 A.2d 240 (1955); Lobdell Car Wheel Co. v. Subielski, Del.Super., 2 W.W.Harr. 462, 32 Del. 462, 125 A. 462 (1924). The question of wilfulness is a conclusion of fact and law which has been held to be reviewable in this Court. Id.

No Delaware court has had the opportunity to set forth a standard to determine if a suicide is wilful within the meaning of the statute.

Appellant claims that the majority rule on this matter derives from In Re Sponatski, Mass.Supr., 220 Mass. 526, 108 N.E. 466 (1915). The Sponatski rule allows compensation for suicide where, as the result of a physical injury, the workman was possessed of an uncontrollable impulse to commit suicide or was in a delirium of frenzy, that he did not consciously intend to kill himself, and that he did not realize the consequences of his act of self-destruction. See, Konazewska v. Erie R. Co., N.J.Supr., 132 N.J.L. 424, 41 A.2d 130, aff'd 133 N.J.L. 557, 45 A.2d 315 (1946); Blasczak v. Crown Cork & Seal Company, Inc., Pa.Super., 193 Pa.Super. 422, 165 A.2d 128 (1960).

This rule has been denounced in a number of jurisdictions in recent years. The thrust of the criticism centers about Sponatski's failure to take into account the role which pain or despair may play in breaking down a rational mental process. Graver Tank & Manufacturing Company v. Industrial Commission, Ariz.Supr., 97 Ariz. 256, 399 P.2d 664 (1965); Harper v. Industrial Commission, Ill.Supr., 24 Ill.2d 103, 180 N.E.2d 480 (1962); Annot., 15 A.L.R.3d 616, 633 (1967).

In addition, recovery under this rule has, in many cases, depended upon the act used to commit suicide. Compensable cases are frequently marked by some violent or eccentric method of self-destruction, while the noncompensable ones usually present a quiet, but ultimately unbearable, agony leading to a solitary and undramatic suicide. 1A Larson, Workmen's Compensation Law, § 36.21 (1978).

Furthermore, the requirements which must be met to recover for a suicide closely parallel the M'Naghten Rule. Allowing recovery in workmen's compensation cases to depend on a standard closely akin to insanity in criminal law undercuts the primary purpose of workmen's compensation statutes. A broad, not narrow, interpretation of the coverage of the provisions of the Delaware Workmen's Compensation Act is in keeping with the basic purpose and spirit of its enactment. See, Zallea Brothers v. Cooper, Del.Super., 3 Storey 168, 166 A.2d 723 (1960); Children's Bureau of Delaware v. Nissen, Del.Super., 3 Terry 209, 29 A.2d 603 (1942).

The trend in...