by Timothy A. Raimey, Jr., Esq.

A recent Supreme Court of Maine decision held a widow of an employee who suffered a fatal heart attack while walking on a treadmill during a break from his telecommuting job could recover workers’ compensation death benefits. He also had his Blackberry with him. The Court put significant weight on an expert medical opinion that the stress of the deceased’s job and his underlying pre-existing heart conditions caused his heart attack and death.

Georgia would appear to have a higher standard for a claimant to meet. In Georgia, a heart attack will not be compensable “unless it is shown by a preponderance of competent and credible evidence, which shall include medical evidence, that

[the heart attack was] attributable to the performance of the usual work of employment.” O.C.G.A. § 34-9-1(4).

In the Maine case, although there was medical evidence, there appears to have been a focus on testimony from the widow and co-workers as to the employee’s stress level. The reference to the employee having his phone with him seemed to be a stretch but it certainly portrayed an image of an employee who was not truly on break.

How would you defend this claim in Georgia? First, get an expert to neutralize the claimant’s expert. Stress does not cause heart attacks. Stress may lead to habits that make you more likely to have a heart attack like smoking and overeating. But those habits may have existed long before the employee even started with the employer. Look for any evidence of pre-existing medical conditions as well as unhealthy behaviors. Heart attacks rarely occur without any medical history and although there can be aggravations of pre-existing conditions in Georgia, a good expert may conclude that a pre-existing history was a ticking time bomb and on-the-job stress was therefore not a causative factor.

As for the incident occurring at home, although it is true that this Maine employee worked from home, he was on a break, exercising. Heart attacks, unlike other types of injuries, can occur outside of work and still be compensable but it ultimately comes back to whether work was a causative factor. In Georgia, defending the claim would focus on both what he was doing at the time of the heart attack and medical conditions having nothing to do with work that pre-disposed him to an incident. We all have unhealthy behaviors from time to time; the point in defending heart attack claims is to emphasize that those behaviors are not connected to the job. Think of it as a more modern version of the Twinkie Defense.