In California, an industrial injury does not have to be a physical injury; it can also be an emotional injury due to stress or trauma caused by the employment. You may also have to provide compensation for injuries related to stress. For a complete discussion of injuries related to stress, see Stress-Related Injuries.

When a claim is presented, the DWC first determines if the injury or death arose out of employment and occurred in the course of employment. An injury meets these standards if:

• The job played an “active” role and a “positive” factor in the injury’s development.
• The employer required the activity that resulted in the injury, or employees reasonably believed that the activity was required.

California courts have ruled that an injury must be caused by something to which the employee was exposed during their employment. The employment and the injury must be linked, but the employment need not be the sole cause of the injury.

A decision from the California Supreme Court clarified that the employment need only be one of the contributing causes without which the injury would not have occurred.2 The case involved an injured employee who was prescribed medication for unrelated conditions, as well as for his industrial injury. Following an overdose causing the employee’s death, the medical expert determined that the medication prescribed for the industrial injury had only contributed “a few crumbs of the causation pie” resulting in death. The Supreme Court ruled that this was nevertheless sufficient to support industrial causation, and awarded full benefits.

Alternatively, employees can prove entitlement to benefits by showing that their employment brought them into the “range of danger.” For this type of case, industrial injury can be proven if the employment has caused the employee to be in a particular location where the injury occurred:

Example: In Employers Mutual Liability Insurance Co. v. I.A.C. (Gideon), an employee suffered a fall at work due to a pre-existing seizure condition. When he fell, he struck his head on the cement floor. The Supreme Court held that while the seizure itself was non-industrial, the head injury was compensable because the cement floor was in an area of the workplace where the employee was required to work.3

Example: In a low-level decision with very unusual facts, Schneider v. Reliance Insurance Company, an assistant physics professor from Stanford University was granted a sabbatical during which he was to perform research and publish the results. He relocated to New Jersey, where he was able to fulfill his work obligation while responding to a personal obligation that would have otherwise inhibited his work. He was able to continue his work by using his laptop computer to write and maintain contact with the university. While the professor was seated at a coffee shop working on his laptop, a motorist lost control of his vehicle, crashed into the coffee shop and killed the professor. The Workers’ Compensation Judge (WCJ) ruled the death compensable. The WCAB upheld the ruling.

The evidence showed that the professor was working within the scope of his employment, and the location of his work was defined by the location of the laptop. Though the university did not specifically direct the professor to be at the coffee shop, he would not have been there but for the pressures of his employment and the need to produce research papers.4

Example: In a contrasting case, Richard v. WCAB (Kaiser Permanente Medical Group), an employee whose work required her to travel between two employer facilities made stops along the way at her bank and insurance agent’s office to handle personal business. While doing so, her car was rear-ended and she was injured. Compensation was denied because her deviations from employment constituted a substantial detour, placing her outside the course of her employment.5

You are generally deemed responsible to provide workers’ compensation for injuries that occur:

• During personal acts characterized as incidental to work, such as cooling off during a compensated break on a hot day,6 picking up a purse,7 or using the rest room.8
• Within a reasonable distance or time away from or approaching work, such as in a company-provided parking lot.
• During travel or commute that is paid or a reasonable requirement of employment (for more information, see Employee Injury While Commuting).
• During a compensated meal period or a meal time taken on work premises.

In addition, you may be responsible for an aggravation of a prior medical condition9 or if an injury occurs as a compensable consequence of an earlier work-related injury.10

1. Lab. Code sec. 3600(a)(2)