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Skidis v. Industrial Comm'n, No. 5-98-0419WC

5th District, 2 December 1999

INDUSTRIAL COMMISSION DIVISION

PRESIDING JUSTICE McCULLOUGH delivered the opinion of the court:

Claimant, Glenda Skidis, filed five applications for adjustment of claim seeking benefits for stress-induced anxiety, heart arrhythmia, and headaches she allegedly suffered while working as a dispatcher for the Fairview Heights police department. The arbitrator denied benefits, concluding her psychological injury was the product of ordinary on-the-job stress that was not compensable as a matter of law. The Illinois Industrial Commission (Commission) affirmed the arbitrator, and the circuit court confirmed the Commission. Claimant appeals, contending the Commission erred in denying her benefits. We affirm.

Claimant, 61 years of age, worked as a dispatcher for the Fairview Heights police department from January 1974 through the early part of November 1991. Claimant testified that in approximately 1988, she began having problems at work.

The issue on appeal is whether the Commission erred in finding claimant failed to establish a compensable psychic injury. In City of Springfield v. Industrial Comm'n, 291 Ill. App. 3d 734, 738, 685 N.E.2d 12, 14 (1997), quoting Pathfinder Co. v. Industrial Comm'n, 62 Ill. 2d 556, 563, 343 N.E.2d 913, 917 (1976), this court held that psychological injuries could be compensable under either of two ways:

"(1) where the psychological injuries were related to and caused by a physical trauma or injury, i.e., 'physical-mental' trauma or (2) where the psychological injuries were caused by 'a sudden, severe emotional shock traceable to a definite time, place[,] and cause which causes psychological injury or harm *** though no physical trauma or injury was sustained,' i.e. 'mental-mental' trauma."

Because employment conditions in themselves may produce stress, the "mental-mental" theory of recovery is generally recognized as a more difficult basis for claimant to prove that his or her psychological injury is compensable. See Chicago Board of Education v. Industrial Comm'n, 169 Ill. App. 3d 459, 466, 523 N.E.2d 912, 917 (1988).

In the instant case, claimant told her physicians, when she first sought treatment, that the police department had grown in size over the years, as had the workload and demands of productivity, and that affected everyone. Claimant also told her doctors that certain other events contributed to her anxiety. These included her son joining the Marines in the early 1980s, her ex-husband dying from cancer, her fianc