27 Dec 2021

Connecticut: Benefits for Suicide Awarded under Chain-of-Causation Theory

Acknowledging that an employee’s death had resulted from acute intoxication, a Connecticut appellate court nevertheless held substantial evidence supported a finding that there was an unbroken chain-of-causation between the employee’s original work-related injury and his death. The court noted that the commissioner had determined that the employee developed severe depression following his injury, that his compensable injuries were a substantial contributing factor to his development of depression, and that his suicide stemmed from that depression. The appellate court found those findings were reasonable and grounded in the evidence.

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

LexisNexis Online Subscribers: Citations below link to Lexis Advance.

See Orzech v. Giacco Oil Co., 208 Conn. App. 275 (2021)

See generally Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, § 38.03.

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

For a more detailed discussion of the case, see