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Humboldt Community Schools v. Fleming12/22/1999
Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Polk County, Robert A. Hutchison, Judge.
Appeal in workers' compensation case based on suicide of school superintendent.
David Fleming committed suicide while he was employed as superintendent of the Humboldt Community Schools. His widow received workers' compensation benefits on the basis his death was caused by job stress, and the award was affirmed on judicial review. The employer and its workers' compensation insurance carrier, EMC Insurance Companies (collectively Humboldt Schools), appealed. We affirm.
I. Facts.
Fleming began his employment at Humboldt Schools in 1983 as a principal. From 1989 until his death in June 1993 he was the school superintendent. The job stress allegedly leading to Fleming's death arose largely from his advocating the concept of outcome based education (OBE), an educational approach that identifies outcome goals in education and tailors curriculum to meet those goals. The concept was very controversial in the community. Public meetings on the issue became very heated, and Fleming became the focal point of community criticism. In the spring of 1993, Fleming began displaying symptoms of depression, including weight loss, insomnia, indecisiveness, and withdrawal. He became less organized, and he had trouble concentrating. On June 6, he had an acute anxiety or panic attack and began receiving psychiatric treatment from Dr. Josefina Hizon. He took antidepressant and antianxiety medications. During this period, the school board abandoned OBE on Fleming's recommendation. Just prior to Fleming's death, he talked to his wife and doctor about a possible suicide. On June 26, 1993, he committed suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning.
After Fleming's death, his widow filed this claim for workers' compensation benefits against the school district. At the administrative hearing, Dr. Hizon testified that Fleming's suicide was the result of depression, caused by stress associated with work, especially the OBE controversy. This opinion was shared by Dr. Robert Litman, a psychiatrist with special interest and knowledge in suicidology, and Dr. David Clark, a psychologist who has taught and written extensively on the subject. Humboldt Schools, resisting the workers' compensation claim, produced Dr. Bruce Danto, a psychiatrist who has studied and written on suicide. Dr. Danto testified that Fleming's depression was not caused by work but by a personality disorder and a history of growing up in a dysfunctional family.
The superintendents of several small school districts testified about the stresses experienced by them. They testified that controversies of a magnitude similar to OBE occasionally occurred. However, issues as controversial as OBE are so extraordinary that one superintendent had experienced only three or four like it over a sixteen-year period; another superintendent had only one comparable experience in twenty years. The deputy industrial commissioner found that the claimant had established her claim by showing that the job stress experienced by Fleming was greater than the routine job stress faced on a daily basis by similarly situated school superintendents and that this stress caused the depression resulting in Fleming's suicide. See Dunlavey v. Economy Fire & Cas. Co., 526 N.W.2d 845, 857 (Iowa 1995). On appeal the chief deputy industrial commissioner affirmed the arbitration decision. Humboldt Schools was ordered to pay weekly benefits of $708.96 and $5164.00 in funeral and medical expenses. The district court affirmed.
The first issue is whether this claimant is entitled to workers' compensation benefits in view of the fact Fleming took his own life. Th
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