Defending Against Claim of Stress-Related Injury

You can raise defenses against claims of stress-related injuries:

• The “passive stage” defense: The employee’s duties or their work environment did not contribute to the mental or emotional condition. They merely provided a passive stage for the non-industrial mental or emotional condition to become disabling.
  • For example, in Atascadero Unified School District v. WCAB, a court ruled that stress arising out of workplace gossip about an extramarital affair does not qualify for workers’ compensation even though the affair involved a coworker. The court found that an abusive marriage and a divorce caused the stress. The extramarital affair played only a small part and