Hawaii: Worker’s Depression Caused by “Misperception” of Work Event, Not the Event Itself

Where an employee’s claimed “psychological condition” was the result of his “misperception of various events and communications” and “was not caused or aggravated by work but was entirely imported by [the employee] into the workplace,” the employee did not sustain a personal psychological injury arising out of his employment, agreed an appellate court in Hawaii. The employee claimed that during a mandatory meeting with various other employees, his supervisor “directed an unnecessary derogatory remark” about the employee’s potential termination in front of the co-workers, that he was “humiliated and shocked” by the statement, and that after the incident he became anxious, unable to concentrate, and depressed. One medical expert indicated the employee had “thin skin” and “a low threshold for anxiety.” The appellate court indicated that the Board found that the employee’s claim for psychological stress injury was not work-related because it was not based on anything that actually happened at work, but only on the employee’s misperception of what had happened. That misperception, in turn, was based on the employee’s pre-existing psychological personality traits.

Thomas A. Robinson, J.D., the Feature National Columnist for the LexisNexis Workers’ Compensation eNewsletter, is a leading commentator and expert on the law of workers’ compensation.

LexisNexis Online Subscribers: Citations below link to Lexis Advance. Bracketed citations link to lexis.com.

See Chung v. City and County of Honolulu Dep’t of Parks and Recreation, 2014 Haw. App. LEXIS 579 (Dec. 30, 2014) [2014 Haw. App. LEXIS 579 (Dec. 30, 2014)]

See generally Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, § 56.06 [56.06]

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

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