What If My Family Member Passed Away While Working, But No One Knows How This Happened?

There may be some legal arguments that can allow for payment of death benefits due to the employee’s death. This issue was addressed by the North Carolina Court of Appeals in Frye v. Hamrock, LLC (2022).

In this case the employee was a dump truck driver who crossed over the double yellow lines on the road and collided with an oncoming vehicle resulting in the employee’s death. The employee was declared dead at the scene of the accident. The employee’s death certificate noted that his cause of death was trauma and motor vehicle collision. However, the employer was able to obtain an autopsy which concluded the cause of death for the employee was a heart attack. Based on the autopsy findings the employer denied liability for the employee’s death while on the job.

The North Carolina Court of Appeals ruled that in circumstances where death resulted while an employee was working for the employer, but the cause of death is unknown, there is a legal presumption that the cause of death is due to the work the employee was performing resulting in payment of death benefits due to the accident at work. However, the employer may rebut this legal presumption if they can show the cause of death was not a work-related cause.

In this case the court found that because the cause of the employee’s death was uncertain, there is a legal presumption the employee’s death was due to his accident at work. Although the employer offered evidence that the employee’s autopsy noted his cause of death was a heart attack, because the employer’s expert medical witness was not able to say for certain whether the employee had an accident that caused his heart attack versus the employee had a heart attack that caused his accident, there was not sufficient evidence to rebut the legal presumption that the employee’s death was due to his accident at work. Therefore, the payment of death benefits was ordered due to the employee’s death.

Should you have any questions about this or any of issues involving your work-related injury, please feel free to reach out to one of the Board Certified Workers’ Compensation Specialists at Cardinal Law Partners for a free consultation by calling (833) 444-4127.