Suicide and Self-Injury as Bar to Workers' Compensation
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| In almost all states, suicide or the infliction of self-injury will bar the receipt of workers' compensation benefits. The overriding issue when the employee commits suicide appears to be that of causation. If an employee's compensable injury is the proximate cause of his suicide and the employee suffered from some form of insanity or mental infirmity, then death benefits would likely be payable. Basically, in order for benefits to be paid, the employee must be injured in the course of his employment and then commit suicide as a result. Employers gain a complete defense when no such injury has occurred or when outside forces, such as the employee's personal situation, have a greater influence on the employee's decision to end his life. A physical injury is not a prerequisite to the recovery of benefits. A mental injury is just as viable as the cause of the employee's suicide.
Self-injury, as a defense, is more difficult for employers to successfully invoke. Most often, the employee's conduct, though deliberate, will be seen as thoughtless and hasty rather than as an act specifically aimed to harm himself. Additionally, there are instances where the employee's conduct can be seen as instinctive or involuntary such as the employee who punches a wall out of frustration over a work situation. Copyright 2010 LexisNexis, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. |