Court Opinion

ID: 9845885
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 03:30:09.704131+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:16:24.523653
License: Public Domain

WYNN, Judge,
dissenting.
The issue on appeal is whether a 56-year-old teacher’s “generalized anxiety disorder” qualifies as an occupational disease that entitles her to workers’ compensation under the North Carolina Workers Compensation Act. The teacher, Barbara Hassell, contends the Industrial Commission erred by finding that her employment at Dixon Middle School did not place her at an increased risk of developing an anxiety disorder. I agree with Ms. Hassell and therefore dissent from the majority’s decision to the contrary.
As the majority observes, mental illness qualifies as a compensable occupational disease, see Smith Price v. Charter Pines Behavioral Ctr., 160 N.C. App. 161, 171, 584 S.E.2d 881, 887-88 (2003) and Ms. Hassell suffered from generalized anxiety disorder. Thus, the question is whether Ms. Hassell’s condition was “due to stresses or conditions different from those borne by the general public” Pitillio *13v. N.C. Dep’t of Envt’l Health & Natural Res., 151 N.C. App. 641, 648, 566 S.E.2d 807, 814 (2002).
In determining that Ms. Hassell failed to make this showing, the Commission found that her anxiety centered around her principal, rather than her students, and that the defect in this work environment was caused by Ms. Hassell’s own failings, rather than problems within the environment. However, the evidence does not support this finding. Rather the evidence, as relied upon by the Commission, included Dr. Chestnut’s opinion that Ms. Hassell’s anxiety was caused by “the nature of her employment” which would include her principal’s lack of support. Significantly, Dr. Chestnut pointed to the totality of the pressures placed on her as the primary cause of her anxiety disorder. Indeed, the language cited by the Commission expressly noted that “she felt that the administrator was not supportive when she made decisions in reference to students." (Emphasis added). As Dr. Chestnut indicated, Ms. Hassell’s day-to-day interaction with a student body that regularly disrespected, threatened, and assaulted her was the primary cause of her anxiety.
The Commission’s also found that Ms. Hassell’s condition “was not the result of anything caused by the defendant or because she was required to do anything unusual as a teacher [but was] caused by her inadequate job performance and inability to perform her duties as a teaching professional.” However, the test of whether Ms. Hassell can show that her illness was due to stresses or conditions different from those borne by the general public is met “if, as a matter of fact, the employment exposed the worker to a greater risk of contracting the disease than the public generally. Lewis v. Duke Univ., 163 N.C. App. 408, 594 S.E.2d 100 (2004) (citation omitted) (The greater risk in such cases provides the nexus between the disease and the employment which makes them an appropriate subject for workman’s compensation). This test is not a matter of apportioning blame between the teacher and the administration. Rather, the issue is whether unique workplace factors existed that put Ms. Hassell at greater risk for illness. Factually, the Committee heard no competent evidence that the general public faces stress or conditions on par with what Ms. Hassell saw on a daily basis — personal taunts, racially-charged invectives, workspace vandalism, and physical threats.
The Commission indicated that other teachers with some of the same students did not have the same problems as Ms. Hassell. However, no other teachers confronted a classroom like Ms. Hassell’s. The only competent evidence about Ms. Hassell’s classroom *14indicated that it was uniquely hazardous. In fact, testimony from a substitute teacher confirmed what Ms. Hassell, her co-workers, and her principal all expressly stated: Ms. Hassell went to work in conditions that members of the average teaching public do not experience.
In sum, neither the Commissions’s findings that Ms. Hassell’s problems centered around her principal, nor that her problems were caused by her own “inadequate” job performance are supported by competent evidence.