## Facts

- Phil Houser worked as a grocery store manager for Bi-Lo, Inc., with duties including inventory ordering and handling stock deliveries.
- After learning that an employee had ordered extra stock, Houser became extremely angry; witnesses described him as “highly upset” and going “ballistic.”
- Receiving extra stock occurred from time to time in ordinary store operations and was not unusual for the job.
- While moving a box of the extra stock, Houser suffered a stroke and was hospitalized; he later returned to work in a light-duty role.
- Less than two years later, Houser suffered a second stroke of a different type that was fatal; by then he was no longer employed by Bi-Lo.
- Medical proof conflicted: one neurologist and the autopsy pathologist supported a causal link between workplace stress and the first stroke (and between the first and second strokes), while the employer’s neurologist rejected both links.
- Houser’s widow sought workers’ compensation death benefits, alleging the first stroke arose out of employment and the second was a compensable consequence.

## Issues

1. Whether a stroke allegedly precipitated by anger and emotional stress at work “arises out of” employment when the triggering work circumstances are ordinary rather than unusual or extraordinary.
2. Whether a later fatal stroke can be compensated as a consequential injury when the initial stroke is not compensable.

## Decision

- The Tennessee Supreme Court affirmed the trial court’s denial of workers’ compensation benefits.
- The court held that a stress-precipitated stroke is compensable only if the employee proves work-related stress greater in intensity or degree than that ordinarily experienced by similarly situated workers.
- Because receiving extra stock was an ordinary job condition, Houser did not prove extraordinary or unusual work stress; the first stroke was not compensable.
- Without a compensable initial injury, the later fatal stroke could not be awarded as a compensable consequence, even if medically related.

## Legal Principles

- Ordinary occupational worry, anxiety, or emotional stress is not compensable under Tennessee workers’ compensation law.
- For a cardiovascular event allegedly caused by mental or emotional stress, the claimant must show objectively extraordinary and unusual stress compared to that ordinarily experienced by similarly situated workers, plus causation.
- The “arising out of employment” requirement includes a legal causation component that is not satisfied by a claimant’s intense subjective reaction to routine work events.
- Consequential-injury recovery requires a foundational compensable injury; a later condition cannot be compensated if the initial event is not work-compensable.

## Conclusion

The court denied benefits because the alleged stressor—anger over extra stock during routine store operations—did not constitute objectively extraordinary work stress, and the consequential-injury claim failed because the initial stroke was not compensable.


Houser v. Bi-Lo, Inc., 36 S.W.3d 68 (Tenn. 2001)