California: Claimant’s Psychiatric Injury Was Not “Extraordinary” Under the Circumstances

Under Cal. Labor Code § 3208.3(d), where the employer has employed an employee for less than six months, the employee may not recover for a psychiatric injury unless the injury is caused by a “sudden and extraordinary employment condition.” A California appellate court held that an employee was not entitled to recover for a psychiatric injury where, after 74 days of employment, he slipped and fell on a rain-slicked walkway at the employer’s premises. His testimony that he was surprised by the slick surface of the walkway because the other walkways had a rough surface, and his further testimony that the walkway was later resurfaced, did not demonstrate that his injury was caused by an uncommon, unusual, or totally unexpected event. Instead, the slip and fall was the kind of incident that could reasonably be expected to occur.

Thomas A. Robinson, J.D., the Feature National Columnist for the LexisNexis Workers’ Compensation eNewsletter, is the co-author of Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law (LexisNexis).

LexisNexis Online Subscribers: Citations below link to Lexis Advance.

See Travelers Casualty & Surety Co., v. Workers’ Comp. Appeals Bd. (Dreher), 2016 Cal. App. LEXIS 321 (Apr. 22, 2016)

See generally Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, § 56.06.

Source: Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, the nation’s leading authority on workers’ compensation law.

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