Missouri: Court Rejects PTSD Award for a Dog Bite

A hotel housekeeper was bit by a German Shepherd when she opened a door.  She claims she could never work again due to PTSD and other injuries.  The Commission affirmed an award of partial disability benefits but rejected her claim of total disability.  Mujanic v Holiday Inn St. Louis South, 2016 MO WCLR Lexis 7 (Lexis Advance), 2016 MO WCLR Lexis 7 (lexis.com) (January 21, 2016).

 She reported injuries to the  head, neck, back, left breast, left arm, elbow and leg.  As a result of psychic trauma she claims she wakes up screaming and cries all the time.  She testified that her expert told her she should quit work and become institutionalized. The experts disputed whether or not she had post-traumatic stress disorder. She is a Bosnian immigrant and saw a psychologist at the Center for Survivors of Torture and War Trauma.  She describes herself as a secondary survivor.

The ALJ found that both psychiatric expert opinions were so extreme that neither one was completely persuasive as to diagnosis or degree of any disability. The ALJ awarded new partial disability the equivalent of 25% of a body for  separate injuries to the breast, shoulder and psyche and partial benefits against the second injury fund based on pre-existing orthopedic and psychiatric conditions. 

Following the accident the claimant returned to work for the same employer for 4 years.  At the time of the comp hearing, she was also pursuing a claim of benefits from social security.

Source: Martin Klug, Huck, Howe & Tobin. Read Martin Klug’s Mo. Workers’ Comp Alerts.

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