{
  "id": 3031827,
  "name": "THE COUNTY OF COOK, Appellant, v. THE INDUSTRIAL COMMISSION et al. (Stanley Florcek, Appellee)",
  "name_abbreviation": "County of Cook v. Industrial Commission",
  "decision_date": "1981-12-04",
  "docket_number": "No. 54654",
  "first_page": "204",
  "last_page": "207",
  "citations": [
    {
      "type": "official",
      "cite": "87 Ill. 2d 204"
    }
  ],
  "court": {
    "name_abbreviation": "Ill.",
    "id": 8772,
    "name": "Illinois Supreme Court"
  },
  "jurisdiction": {
    "id": 29,
    "name_long": "Illinois",
    "name": "Ill."
  },
  "cites_to": [
    {
      "cite": "81 Ill. 2d 31",
      "category": "reporters:state",
      "reporter": "Ill. 2d",
      "case_ids": [
        5480388
      ],
      "opinion_index": 0,
      "case_paths": [
        "/ill-2d/81/0031-01"
      ]
    },
    {
      "cite": "82 Ill. 2d 87",
      "category": "reporters:state",
      "reporter": "Ill. 2d",
      "case_ids": [
        5475227
      ],
      "year": 1980,
      "opinion_index": 0,
      "case_paths": [
        "/ill-2d/82/0087-01"
      ]
    },
    {
      "cite": "79 Ill. 2d 249",
      "category": "reporters:state",
      "reporter": "Ill. 2d",
      "case_ids": [
        3071050
      ],
      "year": 1980,
      "pin_cites": [
        {
          "page": "253"
        }
      ],
      "opinion_index": 0,
      "case_paths": [
        "/ill-2d/79/0249-01"
      ]
    },
    {
      "cite": "24 Ill. 2d 103",
      "category": "reporters:state",
      "reporter": "Ill. 2d",
      "case_ids": [
        2800975
      ],
      "opinion_index": 0,
      "case_paths": [
        "/ill-2d/24/0103-01"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "analysis": {
    "cardinality": 330,
    "char_count": 4985,
    "ocr_confidence": 0.842,
    "pagerank": {
      "raw": 1.075618517046311e-07,
      "percentile": 0.5608906156304866
    },
    "sha256": "73b29584be0bd2c5d074de19454a1106c30f0f68a553e0cfe3d70562e705b44f",
    "simhash": "1:e0bd24d7f9738060",
    "word_count": 830
  },
  "last_updated": "2023-07-14T19:44:05.601688+00:00",
  "provenance": {
    "date_added": "2019-08-29",
    "source": "Harvard",
    "batch": "2018"
  },
  "casebody": {
    "judges": [],
    "parties": [
      "THE COUNTY OF COOK, Appellant, v. THE INDUSTRIAL COMMISSION et al. (Stanley Florcek, Appellee)."
    ],
    "opinions": [
      {
        "text": "MR. JUSTICE SIMON\ndelivered the opinion of the court:\nThe body of Helen Florcek, a matron at the Cook County jail, was found in her apartment with three gunshot wounds, two in the abdomen and one in the head. The shots were fired at close range from her own service revolver, which was found under her body.\nApproximately eight months prior to her death, Mrs. Florcek, while at work at the jail, slipped and fell, breaking her right arm. When the cast was removed several months later, her radial nerve was found to be injured, causing partial paralysis of her arm, hand, index finger, and thumb.\nStanley Florcek, the decedent\u2019s husband, filed a claim with the Industrial Commission for death benefits under the Workmen\u2019s Compensation Act (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1975, ch. 48, par. 138.1 et seq.). He claimed that his wife\u2019s death was a suicide and that it was attributable to the severe depression and pain she suffered from as a result of the injury to her arm. The State\u2019s Attorney, representing Mrs. Florcek\u2019s employer, Cook County, argued that Mrs. Florcek was physically incapable of pulling the trigger of her revolver due to the paralysis in her arm and was more likely the victim of foul play.\nTwo issues were before the Commission: whether Helen Florcek\u2019s death was a suicide, and, if so, whether the suicide was a product of severe depression and pain from which she suffered as a result of her injury. Reversing the arbitrator, the Commission found that Mrs. Florcek\u2019s death was a suicide and that it was caused by the pain and depression resulting from her accident. It, therefore, awarded benefits to Mr. Florcek. The circuit court of Cook County confirmed that decision. Its decision is consistent with Harper v. Industrial Com. (1962), 24 Ill. 2d 103, in which this court held that benefits should be awarded when a compensable injury gives rise to pain and depression that drive an employee to suicide several months after the injury was suffered.\nIt is the responsibility of the Industrial Commission to decide questions of fact and causation. (O\u2019Dette v. Industrial Com. (1980), 79 Ill. 2d 249, 253.) The sole question before this court is whether the Commission\u2019s findings of fact were against the manifest weight of the evidence. See Seiber v. Industrial Com. (1980), 82 Ill. 2d 87; Eagle Sheet Metal Co. v. Industrial Com. (1980), 81 Ill. 2d 31.\nThe Industrial Commission had before it the testimony of the Chicago police department homicide investigator who had investigated the case. In his opinion, based on the position of the body, the powder burns around the wounds, and the fact that the apartment was locked, with no evidence of foul play, Mrs. Florcek\u2019s death was a suicide, despite the controversy over whether she had the physical ability to pull the trigger. Although expert medical testimony conflicted on whether Mrs. Florcek\u2019s right hand was sufficiently functional to use her gun, the Commission clearly had sufficient evidence to find that it was and therefore to find that, based on the homicide investigator\u2019s testimony, her death was a suicide. Curiously, although the State\u2019s Attorney argues that this was a homicide, the records of that office reveal no criminal investigation of the death either at the time it occurred or when, in this proceeding, the State\u2019s Attorney introduced evidence that Mrs. Florcek would have had difficulty shooting herself because of the paralysis she was suffering from.\nMr. Florcek testified that the pain was so great that his wife was unable to eat or to sleep at night; she cried often, and on one occasion she told him that she wanted to die. Testimony from a psychiatrist who saw Mrs. Florcek the day before she died corroborated Mr. Florcek\u2019s testimony that his wife was extremely distraught over the pain and paralysis in her arm. The doctor further stated that she appeared to be very angry with her employer, her husband, and her doctors. She thought they did not believe that she was in pain.\nMr. Florcek\u2019s psychiatric expert, responding to a hypothetical question based in part on the above evidence of Mrs. Florcek\u2019s injury and state of mind, diagnosed her condition as severe depression brought on by the trauma of her accident. He testified that the type of illness Mrs. Florcek had often results in suicide. On this evidence and other evidence, the Commission found that Mrs. Florcek\u2019s death could be traced to her injury and the emotional condition she suffered from as a result of it.\nWe hold that the Industrial Commission\u2019s findings are not against the manifest weight of the evidence and thus affirm the circuit court.\nJudgment affirmed.",
        "type": "majority",
        "author": "MR. JUSTICE SIMON"
      }
    ],
    "attorneys": [
      "Richard M. Daley, State\u2019s Attorney, of Chicago (Jane Clark Casey and Leonard N. Foster, Assistant State\u2019s Attorneys, and Carol Brzykcy, law student, of counsel), for appellant.",
      "Jordan Teplitz, of Chicago, for appellee."
    ],
    "corrections": "",
    "head_matter": "(No. 54654.\nTHE COUNTY OF COOK, Appellant, v. THE INDUSTRIAL COMMISSION et al. (Stanley Florcek, Appellee).\nOpinion filed December 4, 1981.\nRichard M. Daley, State\u2019s Attorney, of Chicago (Jane Clark Casey and Leonard N. Foster, Assistant State\u2019s Attorneys, and Carol Brzykcy, law student, of counsel), for appellant.\nJordan Teplitz, of Chicago, for appellee."
  },
  "file_name": "0204-01",
  "first_page_order": 214,
  "last_page_order": 217
}