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Recovery for Psychic Injuries under Workers’ Compensation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 April 2021

Charles N. Miller
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Extract

In early common law, the courts refused all remedy for emotional disturbance or mental suffering unless it could be pigeonholed within the scope of one of the existing torts, such as assault, battery, false imprisonment, seduction, defamation and the like. The difficulty in reducing such injuries to compensable terms made courts reluctant to recognize and remedy those disabilities. As Lord Wensleydale said in 1861: “Mental pain or anxiety the law cannot value, and does not pretend to redress, when the unlawful act complained of causes that alone.” But appealing as this generalization might be, it flies in the face of reality. As a practical matter, courts have long since allowed damages in tort for such injuries as the loss of limbs or organs and, more recently, have permitted juries to assess money damages by way of subjective Compensation for mental anguish, humiliation, or other emotional loss resulting from defendant’s alleged misconduct. Such compensable events arise within many facets of the law and are especially noteworthy in the area of workers’ compensation.

Type
Article
Information
Law, Medicine and Healthcare , Volume 9 , Issue 4 , December 1981 , pp. 25 - 41
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics 1981

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