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What's New
December 2025 The workers' comp system is geared to handle a wide array of workplace injury claims. These include serious fractures, ligament tears, and muscle sprain. Although injury claims involving mental health and emotional distress symtpoms do not readily come to mind in the realm of on-the-job injuries, the workers' comp system can cover them. When the pandemic arrived, it presented workers' compensation systems with new challenges in the face of COVID-19. In this recent decision (The opinion in the link below is yet uncorrected and subject to revision before publication in the Official Reports of the New York State Law Reporting Bureau for Court of Appeals cases.
The case at hand involved claims for psychological injuries and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) involving transit workers and a teacher. They filed for Workers' Compensation Law benefits in 2020, basing claims on psychological injuries (posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)involving workplace exposure to COVID-19. The Worker's Compensation Board (WCB) denied, on basis that claimants were exposed to similar stress as coworkers.
On appeal, the New York Appellate Division reversed the decisions, concluding that they were not consistent with Matter of Wolfe v Sibley, Lindsay & Curr Co. (36 NY2d 505 [1975]), [psychological or nervous injury precipitated by psychic trauma is compensible to the same extent as physical injury], or (Matter of Anderson v City of Yonkers, 227 AD3d 63 [3d Dept 2024]. The Appellate Division held that the Board's holding was in error, in failing to consider each claimant's "particular vulnerabilities" and in "applying disparate burdens to claimants seeking benefits for contracting the virus—a physical injury—as compared to those seeking benefits for psychological injuries alleged to stem from exposure to the virus in the workplace"
The Appellate court felt that the determinative factor is the particular vulnerability of an individual by virtue of their physical makeup. It illustrated with the example that one person could be susceptible to a heart attack while another could be subject to suffering a depressive reaction. However, the result in each could be seen as the same, where an individual is incapable of functioning properly due to an accident and should be compensated under Workers' Compensation Law Read more (The opinion is uncorrected and subject to revision before publication in the Official Reports.) NY Slip Op 06529
The case at hand involved claims for psychological injuries and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) involving transit workers and a teacher. They filed for Workers' Compensation Law benefits in 2020, basing claims on psychological injuries (posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)involving workplace exposure to COVID-19. The Worker's Compensation Board (WCB) denied, on basis that claimants were exposed to similar stress as coworkers.
On appeal, the New York Appellate Division reversed the decisions, concluding that they were not consistent with Matter of Wolfe v Sibley, Lindsay & Curr Co. (36 NY2d 505 [1975]), [psychological or nervous injury precipitated by psychic trauma is compensible to the same extent as physical injury], or (Matter of Anderson v City of Yonkers, 227 AD3d 63 [3d Dept 2024]. The Appellate Division held that the Board's holding was in error, in failing to consider each claimant's "particular vulnerabilities" and in "applying disparate burdens to claimants seeking benefits for contracting the virus—a physical injury—as compared to those seeking benefits for psychological injuries alleged to stem from exposure to the virus in the workplace"
The Appellate court felt that the determinative factor is the particular vulnerability of an individual by virtue of their physical makeup. It illustrated with the example that one person could be susceptible to a heart attack while another could be subject to suffering a depressive reaction. However, the result in each could be seen as the same, where an individual is incapable of functioning properly due to an accident and should be compensated under Workers' Compensation Law Read more (The opinion is uncorrected and subject to revision before publication in the Official Reports.) NY Slip Op 06529
