Court Opinion

ID: 9678362
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 06:17:37.926007+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:17:03.865714
License: Public Domain

YETKA, Justice
(dissenting).
This court has continually held that the Workers’ Compensation Act is remedial in nature and should be given a broad and liberal interpretation. See, e. g., Dependents of Lemke, 291 N.W.2d 378 (Minn.1980); Radzak v. Mercy Hospital, 291 Minn. 189, 190 N.W.2d 86 (1971); Fink v. Cold Spring Granite Co., 262 Minn. 393, 115 N.W.2d 22 (1962); Kaletha v. Hall Mercantile Co., 157 Minn. 290, 196 N.W. 261 (1923). This court’s consistent approach has been to construe the act’s provisions liberally in favor of the injured worker or his dependents. See, e. g., Zak v. Gypsy, 279 N.W.2d 60 (Minn.1979); Lambertson v. Cincinnati Corp., 312 Minn. 114, 257 N.W.2d 679 (1977); Morrison v. Merrick’s Super Market, Inc., 300 Minn. 535, 220 N.W.2d 344 (1974); Schneider v. Salvation Army, 217 Minn. 448, 14 N.W.2d 467 (1944). We have explained: “[t]oo narrow a construction of that language is to be avoided where it results in excluding an employee from coverage, for the statute, as we have repeatedly stated, should be liberally construed to afford coverage in all cases reasonably within its purview.” Fischer v. Malleable Iron Range Co., 303 Minn. 1, 5, 225 N.W.2d 542, 545 (1975) (citations omitted).
The majority opinion recognizes that mental illness caused by mental stress is as real as any other disability. The majority also acknowledges that there is no medically valid distinction between physical and mental injuries. I would conclude that a mental disability caused by work-related mental stress is clearly within the purview of the definition of personal injury in Minn. Stat. § 176.011, subd. 16 (1980), and thus covered by the Workers’ Compensation Act. Minn.Stat. § 176.021, subd. 1 (1980).
The Workers’ Compensation Court of Appeals has agreed that mental injury caused by job-related stress is covered by the act. See Applequist v. Insurance Company of North America, 33 Minn. Workers’ Comp. Dec. 245 (1980). We have already implied that such an injury is compensable. See Hough v. Drevdahl & Son Co., 281 N.W.2d 690 (Minn.1979). ■ The Wisconsin Supreme Court has followed the rule that this type of injury is compensable if the employee can show that he was exposed to stresses and strains beyond the ordinary day-to-day stresses and strains to which all the employees were exposed. See Swiss Colony, Inc. v. Department of Industry, Labor and Human Relations, 72 Wis.2d 46, 240 N.W.2d 128 (1976). This is also the approach I would advocate for this court.
I would thus affirm for these reasons.