Is sudden death after returning home from an illness at work considered a work-related injury?

　　The 50-year-old worker asked for leave from the unit due to chest tightness and discomfort, and his condition worsened after arriving home, and he died after the rescue was ineffective, and it was only 1 hour before and after. Is this a work-related injury?

　　This is a work-related injury determination case that can be called an "extreme" situation, and the relevant departments have applied the law inconsistently, and the dispute has been heard by the court three times, and the dispute has lasted for four years.

　　In the end, the procuratorate adhered to the "three goodnesses" in handling the case, successfully appealed in accordance with the law, the court retried the case, and the human resources and social security department re-identified it as a work-related injury, and the party finally obtained the work-related injury insurance benefits that the party should be entitled to.

The day before his sudden death, he took leave to seek medical treatment due to physical discomfort

　　Lao Li, who has worked for 36 years, is a safety officer at a company in Inner Mongolia. On the morning of July 28, 2020, Lao Li felt unwell at work in the unit, asked for leave to seek medical treatment, and returned to work after taking medication. In the afternoon of the same day, Lao Li felt unwell again, and the project manager asked him to take leave to go home to rest.

　　In fact, when Lao Li was in the hospital, the doctor suggested that he be hospitalized, but because the company had a safety officer review and certificate renewal training exam the next day, Lao Li refused - due to the special nature of the position, if he failed the exam, it meant that Lao Li could no longer serve as a safety officer.

　　It was this decision that made Lao Li miss the best time for treatment.

　　On July 29, during the exam, Lao Li's chest tightness was uncomfortable, but he insisted on finishing the exam at 16:30 before going home accompanied by his colleagues. After arriving home, Lao Li's condition worsened and he fell to the ground in a coma, and his wife, Ms. Xue, immediately called the emergency number. At 17:30 on the same day, the ambulance arrived and diagnosed Lao Li as sudden death at the scene.

　　The sudden change instantly plunged the family of three into the abyss.

　　After taking care of Lao Li's funeral, Lao Li's sons Xiao Li and Ms. Xue applied to a municipal human resources and social security bureau (hereinafter referred to as the "Municipal Human Resources and Social Security Bureau") for Lao Li's work-related injury. The Municipal Bureau of Human Resources and Social Security held that Lao Li did not meet the deemed work-related injury conditions stipulated in Article 15 of the Regulations on Work-related Injury Insurance (hereinafter referred to as the "Regulations"), so it was not recognized.

　　The mother and son filed an administrative lawsuit with the people's court of a district in the city. The court of first instance found that Lao Li's situation was treated as a work-related injury, and ruled to revoke the Municipal Human Resources and Social Security Bureau's decision not to recognize the work-related injury, and ordered him to make a new decision within a time limit.

　　The Municipal Human Resources and Social Security Bureau was not satisfied with this result and appealed. The court of second instance found that Lao Li was not treated as a work-related injury and ruled to revoke the first-instance judgment.

　　After Ms. Xue's mother and son's litigation claims were rejected, they applied to the High People's Court of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region for a retrial, which was also rejected. Faced with this result, the mother and son fell into despair again, so they applied to the procuratorate for supervision. The people's procuratorate of a certain city accepted the case in accordance with law and submitted a procuratorial counter-appeal to the people's procuratorate of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

The procuratorate successfully appealed, and the court retried and changed the verdict

　　Article 15, Paragraph 1, Item 1 of the "Regulations" clearly stipulates that during working hours and at work, the person dies of sudden illness or dies within 48 hours after rescue fails.

　　After comprehensively reviewing the case file materials, questioning Lao Li's colleagues and family members one by one, and consulting with relevant experts and administrative organs, the procuratorate gave a clear legal supervision opinion: Lao Li had a sudden illness during working hours and at work, and the time of his death was no more than 48 hours after he first went to a medical institution for diagnosis when he first became unwell, which met the situation of "death or death within 48 hours after rescue was ineffective". Because Lao Li did not make an accurate judgment on the severity of the condition, he chose to go home to rest, which is in line with the self-help choice and daily reasonableness of ordinary workers.

　　"In the absence of other evidence to prove that there may have been other reasons for the occurrence of the death result, if the determination of work-related injury is rejected solely on the grounds that Lao Li has returned home, in fact, the applicable conditions stipulated in the Regulations are restricted, which is contrary to the legislative purpose of protecting the rights and interests of workers." The prosecutor handling the case told reporters.

　　On February 28, 2023, the People's Procuratorate of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region filed a protest with the High People's Court of the Autonomous Region. On December 29 of the same year, the High People's Court of the Autonomous Region adopted the protest opinion, and the retrial judgment revoked the second-instance judgment and upheld the first-instance judgment.

　　Li Yongjun, secretary of the leading party group and chief procurator of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region People's Procuratorate, was very concerned about the handling of the case, and expressed his opinions on the focus of the dispute in this case when attending a meeting of the adjudication committee of the Autonomous Region High People's Court as an observer. In his view, work-related injury determination cases cannot be handled "one-size-fits-all", and specific cases should be analyzed on a case-by-case basis to fully understand the original intent of the legislation. For situations where Lao Li was at work at the time of illness, had an acute illness, and had the consequences of death, it should be found to be a work-related injury, so as to make law enforcement and justice more humane and closer to the original intent of the legislation.

　　"We must be good at accurately grasping the substantive legal relationship from the complex legal facts, and we must also be good at profoundly understanding the spirit of the rule of law from specific legal provisions, and be good at realizing fairness and justice in the organic unity of law, reason, and feelings, and earnestly implement the basic value pursuit of 'handling every case with high quality and efficiency' in all aspects of the entire process of procuratorial case handling." Li Yongjun emphasized.

The procuratorates at the two levels followed up and supervised to substantively resolve disputes

　　Does the administrative organ agree that the court's retrial judgment has taken effect? Can the supervising applicant get the work-related injury insurance benefits that Lao Li is entitled to?

　　In this regard, the procuratorates at the two levels continued to follow up on the follow-up handling of the case, and immediately held a symposium with the Municipal Human Resources and Social Security Bureau after the retrial judgment took effect, using the case as a starting point to conduct in-depth discussions on the understanding and application of Article 15, Paragraph 1, Item 1 of the "Regulations", and reached a consensus.

　　On February 29 this year, the Municipal Bureau of Human Resources and Social Security made a new decision to recognize Lao Li's death as a work-related injury.

　　"This "Work-related Injury Certificate", our mother and mother waited for 4 years, and finally got justice for Lao Li." Ms. Xue was excited.

　　"In handling administrative litigation supervision cases related to the determination of work-related injuries, where the administrative organ improperly restricts the scope of application of item 1 of the first paragraph of article 15 of the "Regulations", and the effective judgment fails to correct it, the procuratorate shall supervise and correct it by means such as raising a prosecutorial counter-appeal." Sun Luyi, director of the Administrative Procuratorate Department of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region People's Procuratorate, said that Lao Li's situation is indeed a relatively extreme situation in practice, and this is an important reason for the controversy. The successful protest and reversal of the judgment in this case is of reference significance for the correct understanding of the "sudden illness at work" and the resolution of the dispute issue of whether death after returning home from an illness at work can be recognized as a work-related injury. However, Sun Luyi also pointed out that other similar but not identical work-related injury determination cases should be analyzed on a case-by-case basis according to the specific circumstances, and this case should not be mechanically applied.

　　"This case is a very representative and typical case for us to handle the supervision of effective administrative judgments in the category of work-related injury determination." Li Yongjun said that the supervision of effective administrative adjudication is the "top priority" of administrative litigation supervision, and the handling of such cases should be based on the functions of administrative procuratorates in not only supervising the impartial administration of justice by the courts but also promoting the administration of administrative organs according to law, integrating the "three goodnesses" into the whole process of handling cases, giving full play to the role of correcting deviations, and maintaining the uniform and correct implementation of the law.

　　On May 20 this year, Ms. Xue and Xiao Li successfully received Lao Li's work-related injury insurance benefits in full, and couldn't wait to call the prosecutor to tell the prosecutor: "Thank you to the procuratorate for pulling us out when we were desperate, and giving Lao Li an explanation." ”

Source丨Anhui Law Popularization, China Law Popularization