Court Opinion

ID: 9664549
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 00:21:09.278444+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:15:07.158971
License: Public Domain

Fahrnbruch, J.,
concurring.
Since 1969, this court has held that an exertion- or stress-caused heart injury to which the claimant’s preexisting heart disease or condition contributes is compensable only if the claimant shows that the exertion or stress encountered during employment is greater than that experienced during the ordinary nonemployment life of the employee or any other person. See Beck v. State, 184 Neb. 477, 168 N.W.2d 532 (1969). Even if one ignores the values of stability and predictability which adhering to precedent engenders, the current test for legal causation is a sensible and prudent approach. The foregoing rule has been applied for over 20 years without difficulty.
As the court in Allen v. Industrial Com’n, 729 P.2d 15, 26-27 (Utah 1986), asserted:
We believe an objective standard of comparison will provide a more consistent and predictable standard .... In evaluating typical nonemployment activity, the focus is on what typical nonemployment activities are generally expected of people in today’s society, not what this particular claimant is accustomed to doing. Typical *251activities and exertions expected of men and women in the latter part of the 20th century, for example, include taking full garbage cans to the street, lifting and carrying baggage for travel, changing a flat tire on an automobile, lifting a small child to chest height, and climbing the stairs in buildings. By using an objective standard, the case law will eventually define a standard for typical “nonemployment activity” in much the way case law has developed the standard of care for the reasonable man in tort law.
Carruthers v. PPG Industries, Inc., 551 So. 2d 1282 (La. 1989), demonstrates the weakness in a rule dispensing with the comparison to the nonemployment life of any other person. In Carruthers, the plaintiff’s decedent died due to a heart attack shortly after climbing a flight of stairs at his place of employment. He suffered from emphysema, hypertension, and diabetes and had residual damage from childhood poliomyelitis. The decedent did not climb steps in his nonemployment life, and his outside activities were restricted to reading and watching television. Because the plaintiff would have been unsuccessful if the objective standard was retained, she argued that the court should compare the decedent’s work-related stress to the amount of stress in his nonemployment life. The court originally declined to do so, stating, “Such a standard would ignore the considerations of causation and attendant fairness to employers and thus contravene the underlying purposes of the compensation statute.” Id. at 1285. Furthermore, there were concerns that “were the rule otherwise, many employers would be reluctant to hire workers with even slight health problems if the natural progression of employees’ illnesses, rather than work-related causes, made employers liable for compensation.” Id. at 1284. While the Carruthers court granted a rehearing, vacated its prior opinion, and reversed the judgment, I agree with its former decision.
Other courts adhere to the test for legal causation adopted by this court. See, e.g., Dept. of Transp. v. Van Cannon, 459 N.W.2d 900 (Iowa App. 1990); Bryant v. Masters Mach. Co., 444 A.2d 329 (Me. 1982).
It would be unfair to hold an employer liable when the *252employee is in such a weakened condition that the employee does not even climb a flight of stairs in the employee’s nonemployment life. Without a comparison to the nonemployment life of any other person, work-relatedness of the injury would be strictly fortuitous. Furthermore, employers would be reluctant to hire people with preexisting conditions or diseases.
On the other hand, if one has an unusually vigorous nonemployment life, it makes little sense to compare the employment exertion to that encountered by the average person. The comparison must also be made with this particular employee’s nonemployment life. If the exertion is not any greater than he or she encounters in his or her nonemployment life, it cannot be said that the employment exertion caused the injury. Thus, it is sensible to make both comparisons. The test is conjunctive. That is to say, in each case, the comparison is made to the employee’s nonemployment life and the nonemployment life of any other person.