The Appellate Division finds husband entitled to workers' compensation dependency benefits after wife dies of pulmonary embolism while performing sedentary work.

The decedent was a 25-year employee of the respondent who often worked from home, where she sat at her computer for long hours in order to meet various deadlines imposed by her superiors. On the evening of September 24, 2007, the decedent began working on a project at home. Although the length of time she worked on the project was disputed, there was evidence presented at trial to allow for an inference that she worked throughout the night and well into the following morning. At or about 11:30 a.m. on the morning of September 25, 2007, the decedent began experiencing chest pain and shortness of breath. She phoned 911 and was taken by ambulance to the hospital, where she was pronounced dead on arrival. The medical examiner concluded that the cause of death was a pulmonary embolism. An autopsy also revealed that the decedent, age 47, weighed 304 pounds at the time of her death and had an enlarged heart. The petitioner, the decedent's husband, filed a dependency claim with the Division of Workers' Compensation. He contended that because the decedent's work required her to sit an inordinately long period of time on the day in question, she developed a blood clot in her leg which embolized in her pulmonary artery, resulting in her death. The judge of compensation determined that the petitioner's claim was compensable under N.J.S.A. 34:15-7.2, the section of the workers' compensation statute addressing cardiovascular injury or death, and awarded dependency benefits to the petitioner. The respondent appealed. In affirming the judge of compensation's ruling, the Appellate Division examined Section 7.2 of the workers' compensation statute, which states in relevant part, "In any claim for compensation for injury or death from cardiovascular . . . causes, the claimant shall prove by a preponderance of the credible evidence that the injury or death was produced by the work effort or strain involving a substantial condition, event or happening in excess of the wear and tear of the claimant's daily living and in reasonable medical probability caused in a material degree the cardiovascular . . . injury or death resulting therefrom." The statute goes on to define "material degree" as "an appreciable degree or a degree substantially greater than de minimis." The Appellate Division found that, although the decedent lived a relatively sedentary life in and out of work, there was sufficient credible evidence to support the judge of compensation's finding that her work inactivity on the day in question was greater than her non-work inactivity. Further, and despite the presence of a variety of other risk factors including obesity and cardiac abnormalities, the Appellate Division was satisfied that there was sufficient medical evidence present to allow the judge of compensation to conclude that this prolonged work inactivity caused the decedent's pulmonary embolism to a material degree.

Case Law Alert - 4th Qtr 2011