On Appeal from the 164th District Court Harris County
An employee suffered a fatal heart attack on the job while employed by appellee corporation. A workers’ compensation claim was filed by the decedent's fiancée, the appellant, on behalf of their son. The decedent's injury was determined to be not compensable as a workers’ compensation claim, and appellant filed suit against the appellee, for gross negligence. The trial court granted summary judgment against the appellant on grounds of res judicata and collateral estoppel. The appellate court found the question for the Department of Workers’ Compensation (DWC) was whether the preponderance of the medical evidence indicated that the employee’s work, rather than a preexisting condition, was a substantial contributing factor. The question in a gross negligence claim was whether appellee's conduct involved an extreme degree of risk,  and it was aware of, or acted with conscious indifference to, that risk. The appellant could not raise a gross negligence claim before the DWC, thus the trial court erred in granting summary judgment on res judicata grounds. Further, a heart attack was compensable under Tex. Labor Code Ann. section 408.008 only after the DWC concluded that work-related conditions contributed more to the heart attack than any preexisting condition.  The court found the inquiries under section 408.008 and a gross negligence suit involved different questions, concluding the causation issue was not fully and fairly litigated during the DWC hearing. Thus, the trial court also erred in granting summary judgment on collateral estoppel grounds. Accordingly, the judgment was reversed and remanded.