Decision  John Creamer v. Suffolk County House of Correction

Date:	01/10/2012
Organization:	Department of Industrial Accidents
Docket Number:	DIA Board No. 023276-08
Location:	Boston

• Employee: John Creamer
• Employer: Suffolk County House of Correction
• Self Insurer: City of Boston

HORAN, J. The employee appeals from a decision denying his claim for benefits owing to an alleged psychiatric injury, a panic disorder.¹ Because we agree with the employee that the judge’s credibility findings are based, in large part, on a misreading of the evidence, we reverse the decision and recommit the case for a hearing de novo before a different administrative judge.

¹The employee’s psychiatric injury was not the result of a physical injury. Accordingly, the standard for its compensability is found in the third and fifth sentences of G. L. c. 152, § 1(7A), which provide:

Personal injuries shall include mental or emotional disabilities only where the predominant contributing cause of such disability is an event or series of events occurring within any employment. . . . No mental or emotional disability arising principally out of a bona fide, personnel action including a transfer, promotion, demotion, or termination except such action which is the intentional infliction of emotional harm shall be deemed to be a personal injury within the meaning of this chapter.