Emotional Tension Claim Following 9/11 Attack – Not Compensable
In the Matter of Young v. Pentax Precision Instrument Corp., 57 A.D.3d 1323, 870 N.Y.S.2d 151 (2008), a New York appellate court affirmed a determination by the state's Workers Compensation Board that a claimant failed to establish her claim of mental injury when she alleged that she had been subjected to repeated episodes of harassment after September 11, 2001 because of her Egyptian ethnicity and, as a result, suffered a mental injury.
While claimant testified that she was cursed at and struck in the head by one of her coworkers, subjected to offensive anti-Arab cartoons that were placed on a bulletin board, repeatedly ignored and belittled by her supervisor in front of others, and asked by her supervisor if she had turned her family in to the FBI for investigation, the employer's witnesses presented an entirely different story. (WCxKit)
The differences in testimony presented credibility issues for the Board to resolve. The appellate court could not weigh the evidence. See Larson’s Workers Compensation Law, Ch. 44, § 44.05[2] n.19.1.
© Copyright 2010 LexisNexis. All rights reserved. This material is excerpted from Larson’s Workers Compensation Law. Reprinted with permission.
