Opinion ID: 2570165
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: NRS 616C.230(1) Nevada's willful self-injury exclusion

Text: In Nevada, workers' compensation death benefits are payable to eligible survivors for the death of an employee caused by any injury by accident arising out of and in the course of employment. [7] This rule, however, is not without limitation. Under NRS 616C.230(1), Nevada's willful self-injury exclusion, an employee's death is not compensable if, instead of resulting from an original industrial accident, it results from a willful intention to inflict self-injury. Notably, we have not had occasion to consider whether and under what circumstances suicides can be deemed to be caused by an industrial accident and considered nonwillful under NRS 616C.230(1), thus qualifying the employee's survivors for death benefits. Despite this lack of guidance, the parties here acknowledge that certain suicides may not be willful within the meaning of NRS 616C.230(1) if they are sufficiently causally connected to an industrial injury, a conclusion with which we agree. [8] The parties disagree, however, with respect to whether we should adopt the more restrictive, minority approach for determining causation, known as the voluntary willful choice test, or the modern majority position, referred to as the chain-of-causation test.