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Indiana State Police v. Wiessing11/10/2005
The Indiana State Police ("the Police") appeal a decision of the Full Worker's Compensation Board ("the Board") awarding benefits to the descendants of James Wiessing ("the Descendants"). The Police raise three issues, which we consolidate and restate as:
1. Whether the Board erred when it found Wiessing's suicide by gunshot wound to the head was compensable in light of Ind. Code ยง 22-3-2-8; and
2. Whether the Descendants' application for adjustment of claim was timely filed.
We affirm.
FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY
Wiessing was a trooper with the Indiana State Police. During a routine traffic stop on April 16, 1994, a motorist attempted to take Wiessing's gun. A struggle ensued, and Wiessing shot and killed the motorist.
On October 10, 2000, Wiessing died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. Wiessing had two sons, who lived in Missouri with their mother, Wiessing's ex-wife. On May 23, 2001, the Descendants filed an application for adjustment of claim with the Board, requesting death and burial benefits for Wiessing. The Police asserted as an affirmative defense that Wiessing's injury was knowingly self-inflicted.
A single member of the Board first heard the case. After the hearing, the Single Hearing Member denied the Descendants' claim in an order that provided:
CONCLUSIONS OF LAW
1. Although Plaintiff's decedent, Indiana State Police Trooper James A. Wiessing, appears to have sustained personal injury by accident arising out of and in the course of his employment with Defendant, the injury so sustained was that of post-traumatic stress disorder, diagnosed June 15, 1995.
2. The May 23, 2001 Application for Adjustment of Claim was not timely filed, thereby depriving the Board of jurisdiction over said accidental injury .
3. Even were the Board to have jurisdiction over this matter, the Single Hearing Member finds that Trooper Wiessing's October 10, 2000 suicide was not a proximate result of the April 16, 1994 incident.
4. Although the Board does not need to reach the issue of whether the claim would be barred because the final injury was knowingly self-inflicted, the Single Hearing Member finds that this would not defeat the present claim were it compensable.
5. The Single Hearing Member finds that were this claim to have been deemed compensable, the receipt of the State Police pension death benefits would not serve as a bar to recovery under the Worker's Compensation Act. Instead, said pension death benefit payments would constitute a credit in favor of Defendant.
(Appellant's App. at 279.)
The Descendants appealed to the Board. The Board reviewed the evidence, heard argument from the parties, and then entered an order that provided in pertinent part:
It is further found that the Full Worker's Compensation Board by a majority of its members reverses the Single Hearing Member's decision and replaces it with the following Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law, and Award:
FINDINGS OF FACT
1. On April 16, 1994 James A. Wiessing was performing his duties as a State Police trooper when he encountered an individual driving erratically. Trooper Wiessing turned his vehicle around to pursue the individual and did so at a high rate of speed. During the traffic stop that followed, a struggle ensued during which the detainee gained control of Trooper Wiessing's gun. After Trooper Wiessing regained control of the gun he perceived that the struggling detainee was lunging for his weapon and he shot the man in the mouth killing him instantly.
2.
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