Stokes v. First National Bank

Gardner, Judge:

The principal question this workers’ compensation case requires us to decide is whether a claimant’s nervous breakdown caused by emotional stimuli or stressors alone is compensable. We hold that there is no valid justification in such cases for distinguishing between mental disorders resulting from physical injuries and mental disorders brought about by emotional stimuli or stressors which are incident to unusual and extraordinary conditions in employment.

Commissioner James J. Reid found as a fact that claimant suffered “a bodily injury on or before November 30,1984, of a…