The New Mexico Supreme Court has ruled that workers who suffer psychological damages as a result of physical injuries at work can seek full compensation.
The New Mexico Supreme Court on Monday overturned the state’s limit on how long someone can receive workers’ compensation benefits for a “secondary mental injury” caused by a physical injury at work.
In their unanimous 21-page decision, the justices said a portion of the state workers’ compensation law that caps benefits for mental disorders violates the New Mexico Constitution.
Workers with mental disabilities were treated differently from workers who subsequently became physically disabled as a result of their injuries, a violation of the Equal Protection Clause, the justices wrote.
For example, in one previous case, a man who had injured one leg and was walking on crutches ended up injuring his other leg and both shoulders, explained lawyer Victor Titus. The man received full compensation for his subsequent injuries, but Titus’s client, who suffered psychological damage after a physical injury at work, was not compensated.
Workers with both mental and physical disabilities lose some ability to work, the Supreme Court wrote Monday, and mental disabilities have the same effect on preventing workers from earning wages as physical disabilities.
“The notion that workers with mental disabilities should receive less compensation than workers with physical disabilities runs counter to the statute’s purpose in guiding an equal protection analysis,” they wrote.
According to court records, on January 21, 2016, special education teacher Ana Lilia Cardenas injured her left knee while attempting to restrain a student at Aztec City School while he was in a chair. The student allegedly struggled with Cardenas, causing the chair to fall and injuring her knee. A doctor determined the knee injury caused psychological harm.
Judge Reginald Woodard of the Bureau of Workers’ Compensation awarded Cardenas 150 weeks of compensation for her knee injuries in March 2019. Monday’s ruling invalidated a provision in the law that limited her compensation for her psychiatric disorders to the maximum amount for her knee injuries.
Cardenas appealed in April 2019, arguing that her mental health damage should be treated as a separate injury and that she was therefore entitled to 500 to 700 weeks of benefits. She argued that the law itself treats workers who subsequently suffer physical injuries differently from those who suffer mental injuries.
Cardenas’ lawyer, Titus, said in an interview Monday that the ruling is significant because it means everyone’s mental injuries will be compensated on the same basis as physical injuries.
“These people will be treated the same as any subsequent physical injury that occurs,” Titus said.
The appeals court ruled in Cardenas’ favor in January 2022, and a month later, Aztec City Schools and its insurer asked the Supreme Court to review the decision.
Joshua Collins, an attorney for the school district, was not immediately available for comment Tuesday.
Under court rules, the school district can ask the judge to rehear the case if it claims the judge overlooked or misunderstood some aspect of state law or the facts. That request must be made by April 16.
This is not the first time
In 2005, the Supreme Court ruled that laws limiting benefits for mental illnesses were unconstitutional.
Lawmakers tried to address this issue by changing the law in 2015, which linked the maximum benefit for a mental disorder to the maximum benefit for the physical injury that caused it.
Cardenas argued that this doesn’t solve the problem and that the law remains unconstitutional.
Titus, who has tried more than 20 workers’ compensation cases in court, said this area of law comes up in almost every legislative session.
“They try to do what they call ‘amendments’ with every bill, where the Legislature redefines the statute,” Titus said. “It never ends.”