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Hagerman v. Gencorp Automotive6/16/1998
BEFORE THE ENTIRE BENCH
We granted leave to appeal to examine the Legislature's use of the phrase "proximate cause" in MCL 418.375(2); MSA 17.237(375)(2), which provides for survivor's benefits under the worker 's compensation act. We decline to take up the cudgel with regard to the Dissent's scholarly exploration of the evils of judicial legislation or to reconsider the holding in Dedes v Asch, 446 Mich 99; 521 NW2d 488 (1994). Because the circumstances of decedent's death were within the range of compensable consequences under subsection 375(2), we reverse the decision of the Court of Appeals and reinstate the decision of the magistrate.
I
Plaintiff's decedent, Keith Hagerman, worked as a millwright for defendant from April 16, 1984, until December 20, 1989. Decedent sustained a back injury at work on August 25, 1987, while trying to move a five hundred pound barrel. He returned to work, but sustained further aggravating injury to his back until he could no longer work as of December 20, 1989. Defendant paid benefits from decedent's last day of work until his death on March 28, 1990.
As part of the medical treatment of the injury, decedent's doctor ordered a myelogram to diagnose the extent of the injury and indicate the desirability of surgery. When decedent underwent this diagnostic medical procedure on March 7, 1990, a nurse advised him that successful recovery from the myelogram required that he consume large quantities of water before and after the procedure. As a result of this medical advice, after leaving the hospital, decedent consumed a sixteen ounce glass of water every ninety minutes.
Decedent suffered from high blood pressure for which he was taking the diuretic drug Aldoril. On the nights of March 8 and 9, decedent was hospitalized. It is undisputed that the high water intake, combined with the diuretic action of the Aldoril, depleted the sodium levels in his body, causing convulsions or seizures, that decedent aspirated gastric contents into his lungs as a result of the convulsions or seizures, which caused pneumonia and coma, and that decedent died of cardiac arrest on March 28, 1990.
Decedent's widow sought death benefits on April 12, 1990. Under subsection 375(2) of the worker 's compensation act, when death is not immediate, the survivor seeking death benefits must show that a work-related injury was the "proximate cause" of the death. The magistrate awarded plaintiff benefits, concluding that the requirements of subsection 375(2) had been met by " chain of medical causation [that was], although unexpected and unusual, . . . clear and unbroken." Citing 1 Larson, Workers' Compensation, ยง 13.21, the magistrate reasoned that " he great weight of authority recognizes that the adverse consequences of medical management of a work related condition results in a compensable circumstance." The magistrate specifically held:
" he myelogram was necessitated by the work related injury. It is not an intervening, superseding event, unrelated to the original injury. It does not break the chain of causation. It is but one event occurring in an unbroken sequence of events flowing from, and necessitated by, the injury."
The Worker's Compensation Appellate Commission reversed, concluding that the death "was the result of medication designed to control his high blood pressure, a preexisting condition. . . . he medication was an independent cause which lead to plaintiff's death." 1993 Mich ACO 845, 847. The Court of Appeals originally reversed in a peremptory order, but, on subsequent plenary consideration, the Court affirmed the WCAC, concluding that plaintiff had failed to establish that deceden
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