Work-Related Call to Coworker Which Triggered Harassment by Coworker’s Husband Was Proper Basis for Workers’ Compensation Benefits

The Third Department determined the claimant was properly awarded workers’ compensation benefits for exacerbation of post traumatic stress disorder.  A work-related phone call made by the claimant to a coworker caused the coworker’s husband to suspect a romantic relationship between claimant and the coworker.  The coworker’s husband undertook a course of threatening conduct which culminated in an unsuccessful murder-for-hire plot:

Whether the injury producing event arose out of and in the course of claimant’s employment depends upon whether it “originated in work-related differences or purely from personal animosity” … . If there is “any nexus, however slender, between the motivation for the assault and employment,” an award of workers’ compensation benefits is appropriate … . Here, the work-related phone call from claimant to his coworker’s home was the basis for the subsequent harassment of claimant at his place of employment, the employer’s internal investigation and claimant’s request for a transfer — all of which exacerbated claimant’s preexisting stress disorder. As the record reveals no connection between claimant and the coworker’s husband outside of claimant’s work-related duties, the Board properly found the required nexus between the threatening conduct that exacerbated claimant’s preexisting condition and claimant’s employment …  Matter of Mosley v Hannaford Bros Co, 2014 NY Slip Op 04997, 3rd Dept 7-3-14