So what does that mean, "an injury resulting directly or indirectly from idiopathic causes?" Generally, the defense is raised when someone is injured after a fall, car accident or other event that occurs for seemingly no reason. For instance, if a person falls off a ladder at work because he or she fainted and is thereafter injured, the employer might raise the defense that the injury was due to the "idiopathic cause" of the fainting. An "idiopathic cause" for an accident has been defined in the Missouri caselaw as follows: "Idiopathic conditions are those 'peculiar to the individual: innate.' Evidentiary support is required to successfully claim an event is entirely idiopathic, i.e., the event results from some cause personal to the individual, such as a physical defect or disease." Huffmaster v. American Recreation Products 180 S.W.3d 525, 529 (Mo.App. E.D.,2006).
This defense is most often raised when a person is injured at work after suffering some medical event, such as a heart attack, asthma attack, seizure, or loss of consciousness. A skilled workers' compensation lawyer should be consulted if this issue is raised in your case, as cases defended by an employer based on an alleged idiopathic cause are usually hard-fought and headed for trial. Don't try to handle one of these cases without at least consulting a Missouri Workers' Compensation attorney.