Egeland v. City of Minneapolis, s. C8-82-1630

• Decision Date: 03 February 1984
• Docket Number: C9-82-1667,Nos. C8-82-1630,s. C8-82-1630
• Citation: 344 N.W.2d 597
• Parties: Raymond H. EGELAND, Respondent, v. CITY OF MINNEAPOLIS, Self-Insured, Relator. and Raymond H. EGELAND, Relator, v. CITY OF MINNEAPOLIS, Self-Insured, Respondent.
• Court: Minnesota Supreme Court

Page 597

344 N.W.2d 597

Raymond H. EGELAND, Respondent, v. CITY OF MINNEAPOLIS, Self-Insured, Relator. and Raymond H. EGELAND, Relator, v. CITY OF MINNEAPOLIS, Self-Insured, Respondent.

Nos. C8-82-1630, C9-82-1667.

Supreme Court of Minnesota.

Feb. 3, 1984.

Syllabus by the Court

1. The finding of fact by the Workers' Compensation Court of Appeals that the stress of being a police officer was a substantial contributing factor in the development of the employee's ulcer condition is not manifestly contrary to the evidence.

2. The legal test of causation under the "personal injury" section of Minn.Stat. Sec. 176.021, subd. 1 (1980), does not include a test of "perceived" as opposed to "actual" reality. Rather, an employee must show objective evidence of having been exposed to extreme or beyond day to day stress and evidence of outward manifestations of distress either subsequent to or contemporaneously with the claimed stress.

3. Mental injury is not compensable under the Minnesota Workers' Compensation Act.

J. David Abramson, Asst. City Atty., Minneapolis, for City of Minneapolis, for relator-respondent.

Gerald R. Freeman, Freeman, Gill, Egan & Keating, Minneapolis, for Raymond H. Egeland, for respondent-relator.

Considered and decided by the court en banc.

AMDAHL, Chief Justice.

Two separate writs of certiorari were issued in this case as a result of a single decision by the Workers' Compensation Court of Appeals (hereinafter WCCA). Since identical operative facts are involved, the cases have been consolidated for consideration.

The employee, Raymond Egeland, formerly a policeman with the Minneapolis Police Department, claims that he suffers from peptic ulcer disease and chronic anxiety and depression which were caused by job-associated stress. Workers' Compensation Judge Parker found that Mr. Egeland suffered personal injury in the nature of depression and a duodenal ulcer arising out of and in the course of employment. The stresses of his job as a policeman were found to be a substantial contributing factor toward such injury. The judge concluded that our determination in Lockwood v. Independent School Dist. No. 877, 312 N.W.2d 924 (Minn.1981), precluded compensation for disability resulting from the depression. He found a 25% permanent partial disability of the duodenum on the basis of the body as a whole and awarded Mr. Egeland 125 weeks of permanent partial disability at $226 per week in the sum of $28,250 plus medical expenses related to the ulcer and attorney fees.

The employee appealed the decision not to grant temporary total disability benefits as well as several of the findings of fact and conclusions of law.

On appeal, the judgment was upheld as were all of the findings of fact but only the duodenal ulcer and not the depression was held to have arisen out of and in the course of Mr. Egeland's tenure with the police department. The majority on the Appellate Court was divided as to the rationale for the noncompensability of the depression. Two of the judges determined that Mr. Egeland suffered from "perceived" rather than "actual" stress and that "perceived" stress was not compensable. A third judge refused to accept the distinction between "perceived" and "actual" stress but found that our Lockwood decision precluded compensation for solely mental injury.

The dissenting judges believed that the employee had not carried his burden of showing objective significant manifestations of stress as a causal factor in both the ulcer disease and the depression. One judge refused to accept the tenet that work as a police officer was inherently stressful or that the evidence established that Mr. Egeland's work caused either his ulcer or his depression.

We do not accept the majority's adoption of a distinction between "perceived" and "actual" stress. Nor do we need to decide whether Egeland's depression arose out of and in the course of his employment. That determination has no relevance to the decision here because, even if it did, under Lockwood such mental injury is not compensable under the Workers' Compensation Act, Minn.Stat. Sec. 176.021, subd. 1 (1980). We affirm the award of 25% permanent partial disability for the physical injury in the form of a duodenal ulcer and we note that this is the first time in Minnesota that a stress-induced ulcer has been found to be compensable under the Workers' Compensation Act. ¹

a. Work and Medical History

Raymond Egeland began full-time employment with the Minneapolis Police Department in 1962 at 42 years of age after 17 years of working for the Great Northern Railroad. For most of his employment he worked as a "tramp" patrol officer for the Second Precinct, that is, he worked monthly rotating eight hour shifts and received daily assignments without advance knowledge about whether he'd be walking a beat or riding in a patrol car, or who his officer-partner would be.

Between 1970 and 1973, at his request, he was classified as a jailer even though the Second Precinct had no jail. He worked only day shifts, did maintenance work and answered the phones. In May of 1973 he was reassigned to patrol duty and rotating shifts.

Fairview Hospital's records are unclear as to whether it was Mr. Egeland or his wife who was treated for an ulcer condition in 1951 or 1953. But a duodenal ulcer was unequivocally diagnosed and confirmed by X-ray in September of 1965. By May of 1968, he had to be admitted to Fairview Hospital for 4-7 days with severe ulcer problems manifested by pain and vomiting. X-rays revealed a fairly severe duodenal deformity with an acute ulcer crater. Mr. Egeland treated his symptoms with a modified diet and Maalox.

While on a vacation cruise in 1976 he suffered a severe ulcer attack and lost time from work. In December of 1977 a sick leave extending almost a year became necessary due to the severity of both his stomach and his nerve problems.

Mr. Egeland applied for and received a 6-month disability pension in May of 1978. During this period he lost 30 pounds, but he began treatment with the new drug Cimitadene (Tagamet) which greatly alleviated his symptoms.

Upon returning to active duty in October 1978, Egeland was assigned to the police supply room. Although his stomach condition seemed to be coming under control, his depression became more severe.

About 2 years after her husband joined the police force, Mrs. Egeland had begun to notice a change in his personality. He became depressed and uncommunicative and lost all interest in friends and social activities. The depression advanced significantly over the years so that by 1980, Dr. Philander, a psychiatrist who testified on behalf of the City, described Mr. Egeland's depression as a "state of near catatonic autism" and profound depression.

Beginning in the spring of 1978 Egeland was referred by the police department to a number of physicians, each of whom diagnosed chronic depression which aggravated his chronic ulcerative disease.

Egeland's supply room job was reclassified as a civilian position in January of 1980. The four physicians who saw him at that time concluded that he had no active ulcer disease since his use of Tagamet for one week out of each month controlled his symptoms. But all the doctors agreed that his endogenous depression, chronic anxiety reactions and nervous exhaustion rendered him incapable of performing any other position within the police department.

On May 7, 1980, Egeland applied for Workers' Compensation benefits which were denied. By 1982, the depression had largely dissipated and his ulcer was well under control. Currently retired and living at his cabin in Danbury, Wisconsin, he receives a disability pension and railroad retirement benefits. The move to the country has been therapeutic and, at 64 years of age, he has no plans to seek employment.

During the years between 1966 and 1975, Mr. Egeland suffered a series of personal tragedies. In May, 1966, his grown son drowned in a fishing accident. One of his brothers died of cancer in 1971, another of the effects of alcohol abuse in 1972, and another brother committed suicide in 1975. His wife underwent three back operations within the same time span.

Additionally, he seems largely to have ignored the advice of his doctors that he quit smoking and drinking coffee. In 1974 he was drinking 10 cups of coffee and smoking 2 packs of cigarettes per day. At the time of trial those amounts had only been reduced to 4-6 cups of coffee and 1 1/2 packs of cigarettes per day.

b. Medical Testimony

Each party called three expert witnesses, all of whom agreed that in 1980 Mr. Egeland was severely disabled with both ulcer disease and extreme endogenous depression. Their opinions differed, however, as to the cause of his depression, his current physical and psychological status and his employability. Dr. Flint, Dr. Tombers and Joseph Steen testified for Mr. Egeland.

Dr. Flint, a psychologist, believed that the employee was disabled by depressive neurosis caused in significant part by his work as a policeman. In Dr. Flint's view Mr. Egeland was incapable of performing any labor he might see as demeaning since his depression would then be exacerbated.

Dr. Joseph Tombers, a board certified gastroenterologist, testified that while Mr. Egeland has no active ulcer disease at present, he has a 25 to 30% permanent disability of the duodenum. The onset, aggravation and continued activity of the employee's peptic ulcer, according to Dr. Tombers, was significantly caused by his work as a policeman. Dr. Tombers asserted that Mr. Egeland could work only in highly selective types of employment.

Joseph Steen, a rehabilitation psychologist, diagnosed a depressive reaction associated with a physiologic reaction caused by Mr. Egeland's employment with the police department. Mr. Steen believed these symptoms would redevelop if Mr. Egeland returned to the force or to an occupation of lower status but that he was not a malingerer and...