Court Opinion

ID: 9755065
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 20:23:25.399085+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:28:02.280344
License: Public Domain

COOPER, JOHNSTONE and WINTERSHEIMER, JJ.,
join in a separate dissenting opinion.
Dissenting Opinion
KRS 342.0011(1) requires that a psychological, psychiatric, or stress-related change in the human organism must directly result from a physical injury in order to be compensable but does not define the term “stress-related.” With regard to the meaning of a statutory term that is not defined, KRS 446.080(4) provides as follows:
Ml words and phrases shall be construed according to the common and approved usage of language, but technical words and phrases, and such others as may have acquired a peculiar and appropriate meaning in the law, shall be construed according to such meaning.
The majority points out that synonyms for the word “stress” are: distress, strain, constraining force or influence, intense effort, exertion, pressure, and tension. See Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary (1975). The majority recognizes that, physical, chemical, or emotional factors may produce stress. Furthermore, it recognizes that either physical or mental changes may result from stress. Yet, although “stress-related” is neither a technical term nor a legal term of art, the majority ignores the dictionary definition and concludes that the term refers to a type of mental condition.
The plain meaning of the words that are employed in KRS 342.0011(1) indicates that a stress-related change is a change that is caused by stress, regardless of whether the stressor is physical, mental, or emotional and regardless of whether the change, itself, is physical or mental. Thus, KRS 342.0011(1) requires that a harmful change that is psychological, psychiatric, or stress-related must result from an event that involves physical rather than mental or emotional trauma in order to be com-pensable. Harmful changes that result from physical stress or exertion may be viewed as being the product of physical trauma and, therefore, as being compensa-ble; however, harmful changes that result from mental or emotional stress do not come within the 1996 definition of “injury” unless they are the product of a physically traumatic event. See Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government v. West, Ky., 52 S.W.3d 564 (2001).
*34The harmful changes for which the claimant sought compensation included the heart attack and its consequences. Although there was evidence that those changes were precipitated by work-related events, it is undisputed that the underlying trauma was emotional rather than physical in nature. Under those circumstances, the harmful changes that resulted were not compensable. Thus, the decision of the Court of Appeals should be affirmed.
COOPER, JOHNSTONE, WINTERSHEIMER, JJ., join.