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Belcher v. T. Rowe Price Foundation Inc.3/25/1993
be relied upon to create and preserve the wealth and prosperity of the State involves injury to large numbers of workmen, resulting in their partial or total incapacity or death, and that under the rules of the common law and the provisions of the statutes now in force an unequal burden is cast upon its citizens, and that in determining the responsibility of the employer on account of injuries sustained by his workmen, great and unnecessary cost is now incurred in litigation, which cost is borne by the workmen, the employers, and the taxpayers, in part, in
the maintenance of courts and juries to determine the question of responsibility under the law as it now exists; and
WHEREAS, in addition thereto, the State and its taxpayers are subjected to a heavy burden in providing care and support for such injured workmen and their dependents, which burden should, insofar as may be consistent with the rights and obligations of the people of the State, be more fairly distributed as in this Act provided; and
WHEREAS, the common law system governing the remedy of workmen against employers for injuries received in extra-hazardous work is inconsistent with modern industrial conditions; and injuries in such work, formerly occasional, have now become frequent and inevitable."
In the light of the language of the Act, the philosophy underlying it, and the purposes behind it, we believe that modern times call for the concept of "physical injury ", which we have adopted with respect to emotional distress in tort actions to apply to "personal injury" under the Act. The provisions of the Act do not prohibit it; expediency has not proved to be a deterrent; the advances in medical science make it feasible; logic supports it; the needs of society require it. We have come to appreciate that a mind may be injured as well as a body maimed. A person's psychic trauma does not vary depending upon the type of legal action in which the harm is scrutinized. Disabilities are not lessened because compensation is pursued by way of the Act rather than by way of damages sought in a tort action. The inability to work and the loss of earning power are the same.
The human body consists of bones, flesh, ligaments, and nerves controlled by the brain. The law does not state which of these particular elements must produce the disability. If a disability exists, whether or not it is psychic or mental, if it is real and is brought on by the accident and injury , this being a humane law and liberally construed, it is nevertheless compensable.
This observation was made by a dissenting director when the case of Indemnity Insurance Co. of North America v. Loftis, reported in 103 Ga.App. 749, 120 S.E.2d 655, 656 (1961) was before the Workmen's Compensation Board on review. It is quoted with approval by the court in its opinion at 656 and is often cited by the courts and scholars as a sound principle. See Larson, ยง 42.23(a) at 7-911 (1992). We see no sound reason or just cause why the concept of "physical injury " which we have adopted in assessing damages in tort cases should not apply equally to the concept of "personal injury" in awarding compensation in Workers' Compensation claims.
here is no really valid distinction between physical and "nervous" injury. Certainly medical opinion would support this view, and insist that it is no longer realistic to draw a line between what is "nervous" and what is "physical." . . . Perhaps, in earlier years, when much less was known about mental and nervous injuries and their relation to "physical" symptoms and behavior, there was an excuse, on grounds of evidentiary difficulties, for ruling out recoveries based on such injuries, both i
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