Szymanski v. Halle's Department Store

This appeal presents the issue of whether disabilities caused solely by emotional stress without contemporaneous physical injury or physical trauma are compensable injuries under Ohio workers’ compensation laws. We hold that they are not.

In the early case of Indus. Comm. v. O'Malley (1931), 124 Ohio St. 401, this court was first presented with the question of whether emotional stress or excitement leading to an employee’s death constituted a compensable injury. In that case, the decedent, a night watchman, was on duty when a door was discovered open in the building next to his place of…