Townsend v. Maine Bureau of Public Safety

• Decision Date: 23 August 1979
• Citation: 404 A.2d 1014
• Parties: Christine M. TOWNSEND v. MAINE BUREAU OF PUBLIC SAFETY.
• Court: Maine Supreme Court

Page 1014

404 A.2d 1014

Christine M. TOWNSEND v. MAINE BUREAU OF PUBLIC SAFETY.

Supreme Judicial Court of Maine.

Aug. 23, 1979.

Harry N. Starbranch (orally), Augusta, for plaintiff.

Charles D. Devoe, Asst. Atty. Gen. (orally), Augusta, for defendant.

Before McKUSICK, C. J., and POMERORY, ARCHIBALD, DELAHANTY, GODFREY and NICHOLS, JJ.

DELAHANTY, Justice.

We here confront the complex and sensitive issue of whether and under what circumstances a gradual mental injury will be compensable under the Workers' Compensation Act (Act), 39 M.R.S.A. § 1 Et seq. By a decree dated July 11, 1978, the Workers' Compensation Commission (Commission) awarded three months of total compensation to Christine M. Townsend for mental anxiety requiring hospitalization which was allegedly caused by day-to-day employment pressures. We sustain the appeal of the claimant's employer, Maine Bureau of Public Safety (Bureau), brought to us from a pro-forma decree of the Superior Court, Knox County, and remand the case for further proceedings.

Christine Townsend was employed as a civilian dispatcher with the Department of Public Safety from June of 1973 until March of 1976. After being reprimanded by her supervisor on March 18, 1976, for an infraction of the Department's rules, Ms. Townsend became emotionally distraught and left work early that day. Suffering from what the claimant described as a "nervous breakdown," she thereafter voluntarily entered Brunswick's Regional Memorial Hospital where she remained for approximately four weeks. Dr. Frank Sheldon, a physician, testified on Ms. Townsend's behalf. It was his opinion that she had been suffering from a "situational reaction" with a modest depression. Dr. Carlyle Voss, a psychiatrist testifying for the claimant, characterized her condition during this time frame as a definite depression of a moderate degree requiring hospitalization. The Commissioner made a like finding which is not challenged by the Bureau.

At the heart of this appeal is the question of whether Ms. Townsend's disability arose out of and in the course of employment. 39 M.R.S.A. § 51. The claimant testified that she was subjected to work-related "harassment" beginning in the winter of 1973 due to a relationship she had with a state police officer which the Department attempted to discourage. She related a series of incidents in which she was followed, received annoying telephone calls, and was summoned to court, all perpetrated by Department employees who were out to get her. Ms. Townsend stated that even after the relationship ended she was exposed to repeated disciplinary hearings and suspensions which were unjustified until she was no longer able to cope with her job.

Captain Graves, Ms. Townsend's supervisor, discounted any possibility of official harassment. He further testified that when she was not moody and depressed she was an excellent employee. However, her personnel file, which was introduced into evidence, showed a pattern of minor insubordination for which Ms. Townsend was frequently reprimanded.

Dr. Sheldon testified that the "situational aspect" of her employment "(had) something to do with (her disability)", but he stated that he could not determine whether it was a major or minor part.

Dr. Voss' testimony formed the basis for much of the Commissioner's decree. ¹ He stated that the claimant had an aggressive-defensive personality which predisposed her to come into conflict with her fellow employees. She was also predisposed to depression under stressful situations. Factors unrelated to her employment, such as her divorce and tension with members of her family, played a significant role in her breakdown. The Commissioner adopted these determinations in his decree.

His testimony regarding the connection between Ms. Townsend's employment and her disability was ambiguous. At one point, he testified that the demands of the work produced no difficulty for the claimant. At another point, he stated that "serious conflicts in her work situation played a significant role in her becoming depressed." Further ambiguity was created when he testified first that Ms. Townsend's injuries could have occurred in any working situation. Shortly thereafter he stated, however, that the authoritative environment of the Department, in which Ms. Townsend was the first woman to serve, made her breakdown more likely to occur. Without extensive discussion, the Commissioner concluded that the cause of Ms. Townsend's disability was sufficiently work related to warrant compensation. ²

Recognizing that the Commissioner's findings of fact are final when supported by competent evidence, Grant v. Georgia-Pacific Corp., Me., 394 A.2d 289 (1978), the Bureau apparently argues that when compensation is claimed for a mental disability the evidence must show a particular work-related event as a cause of the injury. This contention requires an examination of our relevant case law.

It is clear that this Court has never found talismanic the physical-mental dichotomy for purposes of our workers' compensation law. For at least half a century we have recognized that mental injuries resulting from physical trauma may be compensable. Baker's Case, 143 Me. 103, 55 A.2d 780 (1947); Reynold's Case, 128 Me. 73, 145 A. 455 (1929) ("cerebral congestion" caused by fall compensable); See Annot., 86 A.L.R. 961 (1933). ³ Conversely, mental stimulus such as fright, undue anxiety, and mental strain and stress leading to a physical injury fall within the purview of our Act. Turner v. Kennebec River Pulp & Paper Co., Me., 359 A.2d 304 (1976) (compensation awarded where emotional stress of job, in part, caused fatal myocardial infarction); See 1B A. Larson, The Law of Workmen's Compensation § 42.21 (1979).

If both physical trauma leading to mental injury and mental stimulus leading to physical injury would be compensable, it would follow that mental stimulus leading to mental injury would come within the reach of our Act. Indeed, in McLaren v. Webber Hospital Association, Me., 386 A.2d 734 (1978), we recognized just such a result. There a compensation award was upheld where the claimant suffered an acute schizophrenic episode as a result of a job-related sensitivity seminar he attended.

We have also had occasion to discuss the distinction between gradual and sudden injuries. Until recently, our Act referred to a "personal injury By accident." 39 M.R.S.A. § 51 (1964). (emphasis supplied). The "accident" limitation was viewed, in general, as requiring an unexpected or sudden occurrence. Towle v. Department of Transportation, State Highway, Me., 318 A.2d 71, 73 (1974). Thus, in Towle, a gradually resulting work-related back strain was held non-compensable by a majority of the Court on the strength of prior Maine precedent. In the interim, the Legislature amended the Act by deleting the accident requirement. The amendment had the effect of avoiding harsh results of cases such as Towle. Canning v. State Department of Transportation, Me., 347 A.2d 605, 607 (1975). In Canning, we stated that "(the) attempt to liberalize the Act (to compensate employees for injuries suffered while and because they were at work) could be achieved fully only by excising the accident standard from the entire Act." Id. at 608.

In Ross v. Oxford Paper Co., Me., 363 A.2d 712 (1976), the claimant, a roll handler at a paper mill, suffered numbness in his hands cumulatively caused by repeated trauma to them. Although this gradual injury would have been non-compensable prior to the modification of the statute, under the Act as amended it was plainly compensable.

Combining the holding of Ross with the principle implicitly recognized in McLaren, we are led to the ineluctable conclusion that gradual mental injuries are not per se excluded from the reach of the Act. Indeed, citing Ross and McLaren, we recently stated in dicta: "We perceive no reason why in appropriate circumstances (a gradual mental) injury is not fully compensable if in fact it is shown that the injury arose out of and in the course of employment." Murray v. T. W. Dick Co., Me., 398 A.2d 390, 392 (1979).

An underpinning of policy considerations also supports this conclusion. If we were to cordon off gradual mental injuries from the Act's purview, the Commission and ultimately this Court would be forced to decide whether in a given instance a disability was a non-compensable gradual mental injury or a compensable gradual physical injury. This is a distinction without a difference, for under contemporary medical theory mind and body comprise a single, complex, and integrated unit. As expressed in 1B A. Larson, Supra at § 42.23(a),

there is no really valid distinction between physical and "nervous" injury. Ce rtainly modern medical opinion would support this view, and insist that it is n o longer realistic to draw a line between what is "nervous" and what is "phys ic al." It is an old story, in the history of the law, to observe legal theory co nstantly adapting itself to accommodate new advances and knowledge in medic al t heory. Perhaps, in earlier years, when much less was known about mental a nd ne rvous injuries and their relation to "physical" symptoms and behavior, th ere wa § an excuse, on grounds of evidentiary difficulties, for ruling out reco veries based on such injuries, both in torts and workmen's compensation law. But the excuse no longer exists.

It would be equally unacceptable, even if possible, to distinguish between non-compensable gradual mental injuries and compensable sudden mental injuries given the legislative jettisoning of the accident limitation. Moreover, it would deny coverage to an entire class of individuals injured just as surely as if a sudden and unexpected occurrence had befallen them.

We hold that gradual mental injuries are within the umbrella of the Act. We must now consider what, if any, limitations are to be placed upon the compensability of such injuries.

In approaching this...