§386-3  Injuries covered.  (a)  If an
employee suffers personal injury either by accident arising out of and in the
course of the employment or by disease proximately caused by or resulting from
the nature of the employment, the employee's employer or the special
compensation fund shall pay compensation to the employee or the employee's
dependents as provided in this chapter.



Accident arising out of and in the course of
the employment includes the wilful act of a third person directed against an
employee because of the employee's employment.



(b)  No compensation shall be allowed for an
injury incurred by an employee by the employee's wilful intention to injure
oneself or another by actively engaging in any unprovoked non-work related
physical altercation other than in self-defense, or by the employee's
intoxication.



(c)  A claim for mental stress resulting solely
from disciplinary action taken in good faith by the employer shall not be
allowed; provided that if a collective bargaining agreement or other employment
agreement specifies a different standard than good faith for disciplinary
actions, the standards set in the collective bargaining agreement or other
employment agreement shall be applied in lieu of the good faith standard.  For
purposes of this subsection, the standards set in the collective bargaining
agreement or other employment agreement shall be applied in any proceeding
before the department, the appellate board, and the appellate courts. [L 1963,
c 116, pt of §1; Supp, §97-3; HRS §386-3; gen ch 1985; am L 1995, c 234, §6; am
L 1998, c 224, §2]



 



Cross References



 



  Police officers injured while off duty covered, see §52D-15.



 



Attorney General Opinions



 



  Where employee at work is injured and dies as a result of an
assault by a third party, compensation should be awarded notwithstanding the
assault may have arisen from personal matters.  Att. Gen. Op. 73-4.



 



Law Journals and Reviews



 



  Suicide was compensable injury by disease caused by the
employment.  Haw Supp, 4 HBJ, Nov. 1966, at 24.



  Death by heart attack was not compensable because there was
no causal relationship between work and death.  Haw Supp, 5 HBJ 38.



  Japanese Corporate Warriors in Pursuit of a Legal Remedy: 
The Story of  Karoshi, or "Death from Overwork" in Japan.  21 UH L. Rev. 169.



  Mitchell v. State and HRS §386-3:  Workers' Compensation
Reform in the State of Hawai‘i.  21 UH L. Rev. 807.



  Hawai‘i's Workers' Compensation Scheme:  An Employer's
License to Kill?  29 UH L. Rev. 211.



 



Case Notes



 



  Definitions:  "Out of" and "in the course
of".  24 H. 324. "By accident", "arising out of", and
"course of employment".  26 H. 785; 37 H. 556; 38 H. 384; 40 H. 660. 
Course of employment.  66 F. Supp. 875; 34 H. 221.  Covers workers under
nonmaritime contract of employment injured aboard ship.  26 H. 737.



  Causal connection.  33 H. 576.



  Cancer.  34 H. 717.  On death from cerebral hemorrhage as
arising out of employment.  43 H. 94.  Reasonable evidence of disease
proximately caused.  43 H. 337.



  Where employee is injured on a business trip, employee's
personal activities preceding the business activity are immaterial.  52 H. 242,
473 P.2d 561.



  Mental disabilities arising out of employment are
compensable. 53 H. 32, 487 P.2d 278.



  Injury occurring off the premises during a coffee break is
compensable if it occurred in course of reasonable and necessary activity
incident to such break.  54 H. 66, 502 P.2d 1399.



  Influenza is a compensable injury.  59 H. 551, 584 P.2d 119.



  "Work connection" test to decide whether heart
attack arose out of and in course of employment.  63 H. 642, 636 P.2d 721.



  Employee suffered work-related injury when employee sustained
a psychogenic disability due to employee's employment.  714 F. Supp. 1108.



  Claimant’s act of returning to claimant’s employer’s premises
for the sole purpose of retrieving a piece of cake for claimant’s personal
enjoyment bore no relation to an incident or condition of claimant’s
employment; accordingly, there was no causal connection between claimant’s
injury and any incident or condition of that employment.  77 H. 100, 881 P.2d
1246.



  Employee's psychological stress injury not compensable as
injury was direct consequence of disciplinary action imposed on employee for
altering time cards and this prohibited conduct exceeded bounds of employment
duties.  80 H. 120, 906 P.2d 127.



  Employee's injury suffered in crossing public street between
employer's office and parking lot not in course of employment as parking lot
not part of employer's "premises"; employer's office lease merely
allowed employees to enter into independent parking stall rental contract with
building management.  80 H. 150, 907 P.2d 101.



  Injury did not arise in the course of employment where
assault on claimant, though occurring on employer's premises, emanated from
personal dispute over auto accident.  80 H. 442, 911 P.2d 77.



  Where teacher-claimant allegedly administered corporal
punishment in violation of work-rule prohibiting such conduct, claimant
nevertheless sustained compensable stress-related injury from subsequent
discipline as claimant was acting within course of employment at time of
alleged misconduct.  85 H. 250, 942 P.2d 514.



  An employee's injury caused by a disease is compensable as an
"injury by disease", pursuant to this section, when the disease (1)
is caused by conditions that are characteristic of or peculiar to the
particular trade, occupation, or employment, (2) results from employee's actual
exposure to such working conditions, and (3) is due to causes in excess of the
ordinary hazards of employment in general.  94 H. 70, 9 P.3d 382.



  In order to identify the "date of injury" required
by the department of labor in connection with the filing of a workers'
compensation claim under §386-82, a claimant in a case arising under the
"injury-by-disease" prong of this section may rely upon the last day
of employment as the "date of disability", but this "date of
disability" may also be the date of diagnosis of the disabling condition. 
94 H. 70, 9 P.3d 382.



  Under the doctrine of substantial deviation, employee was
precluded from compensability for injuries received when trying to return
employer's vehicle to employer's baseyard over seven hours after normal workday
ended where employee left the scope of employment to embark on a purely
personal and unauthorized journey to correct a sewer line problem on
girlfriend's property halfway around the island, and had dinner, a few beers
and a nap at the girlfriend's house.  100 H. 285, 59 P.3d 920.



  Although employee was not physically injured while taking
promotion test, psychological injuries employee sustained caused by employee's
dissatisfaction with the process for ranking individuals and the overall
grievance and promotion process was compensable; injury that stemmed from that
promotion process was incidental to the employment and resulted from an
activity that served an important interest of the employer.  100 H. 481, 60
P.3d 882.



  Employee’s injury not compensable where employee’s injury
occurred on public sidewalk outside of employer’s business premises, did not
occur during a lunch or recreation period, did not occur as an incident of
employee’s employment, employer did not expressly or impliedly bring
after-hours drinking party within employee’s orbit of employment and party did
not benefit employer in any way.  87 H. 492 (App.), 960 P.2d 162.



  Cited:  2 F. Supp. 2d 1295.



  Cited:  24 H. 731, 733.