Superior Mill Work v. Gabel
| Decision Date | 03 October 1956 |
| Parties | SUPERIOR MILL WORK and Fireman's Fund Indemnity Company, Petitioners, v. Herbert GABEL and Florida Industrial Commission, Respondents. |
| Court | Florida Supreme Court |
Dixon, DeJarnette, Bradford & Williams and Douglas M. Carlton, Miami, for petitioners.
Wepman & Wepman, Miami, Burnis T. Coleman and Rodney Durrance, Tallahassee, for respondents.
This is a workmen's compensation case in which the sole issue is whether the claimant is entitled to compensation for disability caused by an anxiety neurosis. The facts out of which the question arose are, briefly, as follows:
The claimant has for some years suffered from varicose veins in both legs. In June of 1953, he was injured in the course of his employment when a stack of lumber fell on his right ankle. The injury aggravated his varicose vein condition and, in October of 1953, he developed thrombophlebitis in his right leg, for which he was hospitalized. The blood clot progressed to his lung and lodged there (a pulmonary embolus), but he was successfully treated and discharged from the hospital in three of four weeks. Thereafter, in June of 1954, he was found to be again suffering from thrombophlebitis in his right leg, and a ligation of the saphenous vein of the right leg was performed in order to prevent another pulmonary thrombophlebitis in his left leg in 1950, for thrombophlebitis in his left leg in 1950., for which he had been hospitalized for a short time. In July of 1955, when the hearing was had on his claim for disability, he was found to be depressed and apathetic and in constant fear that, if he resumed his usual employment as a millworker (which required standing on his feet for long periods), he would develop thrombophlebitis in his left leg and another pulmonary embolus therefrom. The Deputy Commissioner and the Full Commission found that the claimant's anxiety neurosis was, in these circumstances, a compensable injury and awarded compensation for total disability caused by the neurosis. The employer and carrier seek a review of this order, on petition for certiorari.
It is generally held that 'when there has been a physical accident or trauma, and claimant's disability is increased or prolonged by traumatic neurosis or hysterical paralysis * * * the full disability including the effects of the neurosis is compensable.' Larson's Workmen's Compensation Law, 1952, Sec. 42.22. In this state, as in some others, there must be an actual physical injury upon which to predicate compensation for a neurosis. See City Ice & Fuel Division v. Smith, Fla.1952, 56 So.2d 329; Larson, ibid., Sec. 42.23. And in all workmen's compensation cases we have read...
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...compensation statutes as not authorizing recovery for mental injuries based on job related stresses. See, e.g., Superior Mill Work v. Gabel, 89 So.2d 794 (Fla.1956); Hanson Buick Inc. v. Chatham, 163 Ga.App. 127, 292 S.E.2d 428 (1982); Followill v. Emerson Elec. Co., 234 Kan. 791, 674 P.2d ......
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...Co., 234 Kan. 791, 674 P.2d 1050, 1053 (1984); Transportation Ins. Co. v. Maksyn, 580 S.W.2d 334, 337 (Tex.1979); Superior Mill Work v. Gabel, 89 So.2d 794-95 (Fla.1956); Fleming v. Appleton Co., 214 S.C. 81, 51 S.E.2d 363, 365 (1949); J.C. Penney Co. v. Pigg, 544 So.2d 169, 170 (Ala.Civ.Ap......
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...true, however, where no physical injury has occurred, since the statute by its own terms excludes such matters. E.g., Superior Mill Work v. Gabel, 89 So.2d 794 (Fla.1956); Davis v. Sun Banks, 412 So.2d 937, 937 (Fla. 1st DCA), review denied, 419 So.2d 1196 (Fla.1982); Williams v. Hillsborou......
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