## Facts

- Robert W. Cunningham, Sr. was employed by Shelton Security Service, Inc. as a security guard.
- Shelton assigned Cunningham to patrol the Little Barn Deli and Market in Nashville, Tennessee.
- During the early morning hours of his shift, three young men entered the store and attempted to shoplift.
- Cunningham told the men to leave the store.
- A night clerk on duty testified the encounter became a loud verbal confrontation, with yelling and cursing.
- As the men exited, they stated they would come back and kill Cunningham.
- The night clerk testified that verbal confrontations of this kind happened about weekly at the location, but Cunningham had not previously been threatened in this manner.
- Shortly after the incident, Cunningham went outside because he was not feeling well.
- A few minutes later, the night clerk found Cunningham unconscious in his car.
- Cunningham died from sudden cardiac arrest.
- Robert W. Cunningham, Jr., as administrator of the Estate of Robert W. Cunningham, Sr., filed a workers’ compensation claim against Shelton seeking death benefits.
- At the close of the Estate’s proof, the trial court granted Shelton’s motion to dismiss, reasoning that the emotional stress was not extraordinary or unusual compared to the stress Cunningham ordinarily faced as a security guard.
- The Special Workers’ Compensation Appeals Panel reversed, finding sufficient evidence to proceed.
- Shelton sought full Supreme Court review.

## Issues

1. Whether the trial court erred by dismissing the workers’ compensation claim at the close of the Estate’s proof on the ground that the heart failure did not “arise out of” employment.
2. Whether, in a heart-attack claim based on mental or emotional stress, the claimant must present evidence that the precipitating stimulus was unusual or abnormal (or greater than that ordinarily experienced) for the occupation.
3. Whether the confrontation and death threat, together with the Estate’s causation proof, created a factual dispute that should be resolved at trial rather than by dismissal.

## Decision

- The Tennessee Supreme Court held the trial court erred in granting the motion to dismiss at the close of the Estate’s proof.
- The Court agreed with the Special Workers’ Compensation Appeals Panel that the record contained sufficient evidence from which a fact-finder could conclude the heart failure arose out of the employment.
- The Court reversed the trial court’s dismissal and remanded for further proceedings.

## Legal Principles

- A workers’ compensation claimant must prove an injury (or death) arose out of and occurred in the course of employment.
- When a heart attack is claimed to have been caused by mental or emotional stress (rather than physical exertion), Tennessee law requires proof that the stimulus was of an unusual or abnormal nature, or that the stress was greater than that ordinarily experienced by similarly situated workers.
- Whether the work-related stressor meets that standard is commonly a question of fact, especially when the proof permits more than one reasonable view of the event’s character and severity.
- On a motion to dismiss at the close of the plaintiff’s proof, the court should not resolve close factual disputes or weigh competing inferences if the plaintiff’s evidence could support recovery.
- Evidence that confrontations occurred regularly did not end the inquiry as a matter of law where the proof also indicated a qualitatively different event—an explicit death threat—capable of being viewed as beyond routine job stress, and where the Estate offered proof linking the episode to the cardiac event.

## Conclusion

The Tennessee Supreme Court reversed the dismissal because the Estate presented evidence that Cunningham experienced a loud confrontation culminating in a death threat and then suffered sudden cardiac arrest shortly thereafter, and a fact-finder could determine that this mental or emotional stimulus was unusual or abnormal for the job and contributed to the fatal heart failure; the claim therefore had to proceed rather than being dismissed at the close of the Estate’s proof.


Cunningham v. Shelton Security Service, Inc., 46 S.W.3d 131 (2001)