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SOUTHWIRE CO. v. GEORGE6/3/1996
We granted certiorari to the Court of Appeals in George v. Southwire Co., 217 Ga. App. 586 (458 S.E.2d 362) (1995), and posed the following query:
Under the Workers' Compensation Act, is psychic trauma compensable when, while not precipitated by a physical
injury, it arose out of an accident in which a compensable physical injury contributes to the continuation of the psychic trauma?
While in the scope of his employment as a truck driver for Southwire Company, Denver George suffered injuries to his knee, hip, and chest when his tractor-trailer hit a passenger vehicle broadside after the other driver ran a stop sign. The driver of the other vehicle was thrown from the impact, and a female passenger was killed instantly. George observed the body of the decedent collide with the grill of his truck. He was placed in the same hospital emergency room with the other driver whose lung had collapsed, whose face was mangled, and who was gurgling and hollering for the deceased passenger. George became so upset that he had to be removed from the room.
Approximately two months later, George was released to return to full duty work by his treating orthopedist. He continued, however, to be treated by a psychiatrist who deposed that shortly after his knee injury claimant "began having recurrent nightmares, insomnia, flashbacks of the accident, and recurrent irritability and crying episodes, and could not get the picture of these people (sic) who were killed in the accident out of his mind." The psychiatrist concluded that George suffered post-traumatic stress disorder which may have been brought on or intensified by his knee injury. This condition necessitated continuing psychiatric treatment and resulted in his inability to perform work as a truck driver.
The ALJ denied benefits to the claimant for psychiatric disability resulting from psychic trauma attendant to a compensable automobile accident, finding: "Although there is a definite need for psychological treatment . . . and his psychological problems have resulted in a disability from work, I find that his psychological problems were not precipitated by specific physical trauma to his knee, and that they were caused by the events of the accident which witnessed." George was awarded temporary total disability benefits for the two months that he was physically unable to work, but no benefits thereafter, "even though he is disabled from working at Southwire or as a truck driver due to psychiatric problems. . . . [because] hese psychiatric problems resulting in disability therefrom do not arise from Mr. George's physical injury, but from the events he witnessed at the accident." The award was adopted by the full board and affirmed on
appeal to the superior court.
The Court of Appeals granted discretionary review and reversed, holding that: "George's mental disability was brought on by a compensable accident in which he was physically injured. Although this physical injury is not the cause of his mental disability, it is part of the reason for its continuation." George v. Southwire Co., supra at 588.
While this Court has not previously had occasion to examine the question of compensability for mental disability under the Workers' Compensation Act, it has long been the rule in this State that a psychological injury or disease is compensable if it arises "`naturally and unavoidably' . . . from some discernible physical occurrence." Hanson Buick v. Chatham, 163 Ga. App. 127, 129 (295 S.E.2d 846) (1982). See also Indemnity Ins. Co. v. Loftis, 103 Ga. App. 749 (1) (120 S.E.2d 655) (1961) (a mental disability is compensable if brought on by an accident and physical injury); Brady v. R
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