Szymanski v. Halle's Dept. Store

CourtUnited States State Supreme Court of Ohio
Citation63 Ohio St.2d 195,17 O.O.3d 120,407 N.E.2d 502
Docket NumberNo. 79-1567,79-1567
Parties, 17 O.O.3d 120 SZYMANSKI, Appellee, v. HALLE'S DEPARTMENT STORE, Appellant; Daugherty, Admr., Appellee.
Decision Date23 July 1980

Syllabus by the Court

Disabilities occasioned solely by emotional stress without contemporaneous physical injury of physical trauma are not compensable injuries within the meaning of R.C. 4123.01(C).

Appellee, Alicja Szymanski, was employed as a sales clerk in the cosmetics section of Halle's Department Store, a self-insured employer. On February 7, 1976, she was showing a customer a requested item which was part of a product line assigned to a co-worker, when the co-worker verbally attacked her, allegedly humiliating her in the presence of other employees and customers. Appellee left work that day allegedly experiencing a severe headache.

She was treated by a physician on February 9th, and, on the following day, was given medication by her family doctor to combat nervous tension. When appellee returned to work that week, still under medication, she collapsed and was hospitalized. Appellee's physician determined that she had suffered a "changing myocardial process consistent of an ischemia." * As a result of her heart condition, appellee was unable to return to work until April 12, 1976.

Appellee filed a claim for workers' compensation which was disallowed. The Cleveland Regional Board of Review affirmed the disallowance, and the Industrial Commission refused to entertain appellee's appeal.

Appellee then appealed to the Court of Common Pleas pursuant to R.C. 4123.519. Her complaint alleged, in pertinent part, the following:

"3. Plaintiff further says that all times herein mentioned she was an employee of the defendant, Halle's Department Store and that on or about February 7, 1976, while in the course of her employment, plaintiff was verbally attacked by fellow employees without justification causing her to have a heart attack and resulting disabilities.

"4. As a direct and proximate result of the event aforesaid, plaintiff was caused and continues to suffer mental and physical distress resulting in disability and further resulting in her total disability from February 12, 1976 through April 12, 1976. Plaintiff further states that her heart condition, * * * is totally, directly and proximately caused by the above described events of February 7, 1976 and said heart condition requires medical attention."

Appellant, Halle's Department Store, thereafter filed an answer and a motion for judgment on the pleadings; the motion was granted by the trial court. The Court of Appeals subsequently reversed the judgment of the lower court, holding that the complaint alleged a compensable injury.

The cause is before this court upon allowance of a motion to certify the record.

Alan I. Goodman, Cleveland, for appellee Szymanski.

Crede Calhoun Co., L. P. A., and Crede Calhoun, Cleveland, for appellant.

William J. Brown, Atty. Gen., and Deirdre G. Henry, Asst. Atty. Gen., for appellee Administrator, Bureau of Workers' Compensation.

HOLMES, Justice.

This appeal presents the issue of whether disabilities caused solely by emotional stress without contemporaneous physical injury or physical trauma are compensable injuries under Ohio workers' compensation laws. We hold that they are not.

In the early case of Indus. Comm. v. O'Malley (1931), 124 Ohio St. 401, 178 N.E. 842, this court was first presented with the question of whether emotional stress or excitement leading to an employee's death constituted a compensable injury. In that case, the decedent, a night watchman, was on duty when a door was discovered open in the building next to his place of employment. The police arrived to investigate. Shortly thereafter decedent was found sitting in a chair, in apparent pain. When asked what was the matter, he replied, "the excitement of it all. * * * Well, I have high blood pressure, get me a doctor or take me to a hospital." Decedent died shortly after his arrival at the hospital.

In denying compensation in O'Malley, this court determined that the absence of any physical injury as a contributing factor in the employee's death barred his widow's right to recover on the death claim. This same reasoning was applied over 20 years later in the case of Toth v. Standard Oil Co. (1953), 160 Ohio St. 1, 113 N.E.2d 81.

In Toth, the claimant, a truck driver, was suspected by the police of having been involved in a "hit-skip" accident while in the course of his employment. He was questioned by the police, and submitted to a lie detector test. At the conclusion of the test, he was informed that he was not telling the truth about his noninvolvement in the accident. Six days later, while at home, he suffered a stroke and paralysis of the right side of his body.

This court framed the issue in Toth, at page 6, 113 N.E.2d at page 83, as "whether anxiety and worry connected with the employment constitutes an accidental injury * * *." The court held that it did not.

In asserting that her disability is a compensable injury, appellee acknowledges this court's holdings in O'Malley and Toth, but argues that they were legislatively overruled by the 1959 amendment to R.C. 4123.01(A) (128 Ohio Laws 743, 745). We cannot agree.

In 1959, the General Assembly amended R.C. 4123.01(C) to provide that:

" 'Injury' includes any injury, whether caused by external accidental means or accidental in character and result, received in the course of, and arising out of, the injured employee's employment." (Emphasis denotes amendment.)

We need not dwell upon the judicial and legislative history culminating in this amendment, for that was explained at length last term in Czarnecki v. Jones & Laughlin Corp. (1979), 58 Ohio St.2d 413, 415-20, 390 N.E.2d 1195. We need only point out that the 1959 amendment was intended to adopt the test for compensability set forth in Malone v. Indus. Comm. (1942), 140 Ohio St. 292, 43 N.E.2d 266, concerning the accidental nature of the injury- causing incident. Czarnecki, supra, 58 Ohio St.2d at page 419, 390 N.E.2d 1195. There is nothing in the legislative history of this amendment which indicates an intention by the General Assembly to compensate for disabilities arising solely from emotional stress.

The Malone case itself, upon which the amendment to R.C. 4123.01(C) is based, held, in paragraph one of the syllabus that:

"The term 'injury' as used in the Constitution and in Section 1465-68, General Code (117 Ohio Laws, 109), as amended effective July 10, 1937, comprehends a physical or traumatic damage or harm, accidental in its character in the sense of being the result of a sudden mishap occurring by chance, unexpectedly and not in the usual course of events, at a particular time and place." (Emphasis added.)

The term "traumatic injury" was defined by this court in Malone, 140 Ohio St. at page 302, 43 N.E.2d at page 271, as:

"(An injury) produced by any sudden violent attack upon the tissues or organs of a living body producing a wound, tear or an abnormal condition thereon or therein. The attack may result from contact with deleterious gases, destructive temperatures or forces of nature."

It is clear that Malone did not depart from the reasoning of O'Malley that disabilities arising solely from emotional stress are not compensable. Since the 1959 amendment to R.C. 4123.01(C) is, in effect, a codification of the test for compensability set forth in Malone, it follows that that amendment does not affect a claimant's right to recover for disabilities arising from purely emotional stress.

We hold that disabilities, such as the one in this cause, which are caused solely by emotional stress without contemporaneous physical injury or physical trauma are not compensable injuries within the meaning of R.C. 4123.01(C).

Appellee contends further that it is a denial of equal protection of the laws to exclude from compensation those disabled employees whose disabilities arise solely from non-physical and non-traumatic incidents related to their employment. An examination of the record discloses, however, that this issue was neither raised nor briefed in the courts below. The issue is not, therefore, properly before this court. Republic Steel Corp. v. Bd. of Revision (1963), 175 Ohio St. 179, 192 N.E.2d 47; Blausey v. Stein (1980), 61 Ohio St.2d 264, 400 N.E.2d 409.

For the foregoing reasons, the judgment of the Court of Appeals is reversed.

Judgment reversed.

HERBERT, WILLIAM B. BROWN and PAUL W. BROWN, JJ., concur.

CELE...

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