INFORTUNISTICA (STUDY OF ACCIDENTS). - The study of infortunistica examines accidents from the medico-legal and social point of view. The term "infortunio" derives from the Latin in (= against) fors (= fortunate chance). A very old definition is that of the Frenchman Marestaing (1869), according to whom an accident consists of « an attack on the human body arising from the sudden and violent action of an external cause ». Today the most widely used definition is that of Moriani, according to whom an accident is « the event by which a violent cause, which in the environment is capable of causing injury, brought by fortuitous contact into relation with the human being, injures his body or psyche to a given extent ».
The accident is therefore characterized by the following attributes: causality and unpredictability, a sudden event extraneous to the will of the person who suffers it, exteriority and abnormality of the event.
The causality and unpredictability of the harmful event are to be understood in the sense that although the possibility of the accident is foreseeable in a generic manner, neither the moment at which it will occur nor the person who will be its object is known.
An event is sudden and extraneous to the will of the person who suffers it when it develops not only in an unexpected manner, but also in a short time, without the intervention of that will which juridically is called, according to the case, negligent or intentional.
The exteriority of the event is to be understood in the sense that the damage must be the consequence of an external injurious fact and not of purely physiological or pathological phenomena that unfold according to the ordinary laws of physiology and pathology. There exist accidents in which the exteriority of the cause bringing about the damage does not appear evident, as in the case of an epileptic who falls from the top of a ladder on which he is working; in such circumstances, however, the external event is constituted not by the epilepsy but by the conditions in which the worker was working.
Abnormality of the event, according to Biondi, means that the harmful occurrence must be constituted by something unusual in the work, which interrupts its normal course. According to Diez, its abnormality with respect to the work is not an indispensable characteristic of the accident; abnormal is the fact that a given occurrence, even one normal in the work process, produces damage. Even inattention, negligence, and recklessness constitute an abnormal phenomenon that inserts itself into the course of the work process.
Italian insurance laws, like almost all foreign insurance laws, refrain from giving a definition of the accident in order to leave the way free for broader applications of a law that was voted to protect the worker from the risks of work.
In Royal Decree No. 1765 of 17 August 1935 (provisions for the compulsory insurance of accidents at work and occupational diseases) the object of the insurance is specified by Art. 2 in these words: « the insurance covers all cases of accident occurring through a violent cause on the occasion of work, from which death or a permanent incapacity for work, absolute or partial, has derived, or else a temporary absolute incapacity entailing abstention from work for more than three days ».
The practical application of the law has given rise to discussions among those concerned with accidents regarding the interpretation to be given to the phrase « violent cause on the occasion of work ».
As for the phrase « violent cause », it is generally held that it must be considered as such not only when it produces the damage suddenly, but also in every other event generating damage through the repetition of injurious actions within a short time, during a single work shift. Such is the case of an acute dilation of the heart arising after a series of inadequate exertions during a work shift. It is further admitted that it is not necessary for the damage to follow immediately; it suffices that the harmful event marks the beginning of morbid processes that will develop later, belatedly. Such may be the case of a pulmonary tuberculosis manifesting itself in the course of time, owing to a serious thoracic trauma.
The violent cause may be constituted by mechanical factors, by chemical, microbial, meteorological, and electrical agents, and furthermore by physical overexertion, by serious emotions, etc.
The occasion of work lies in the risk to which the work has given occasion.
A distinction is made between generic risk and specific risk; the former weighs equally on the worker and on mankind in general; the latter weighs on the worker who performs a determined job; the former gives no title to indemnity, the latter does. Compensation is nevertheless admitted in the case of aggravated generic risk, as in the case in which a worker, in the interest of the firm, is obliged to submit to the action of harmful factors, which, if he were free, he could avoid. A typical example of aggravated generic risk may occur in the case in which a worker is struck by lightning while working in a field planted with tall trees on a day of bad weather, constrained to remain at his workplace by unavoidable necessities of the firm.
On such distinctions is founded whether or not accidents in itinere are compensable. The damage is not compensable when the accident occurs while the worker is travelling the ordinary roads to reach his place of work; in that case, indeed, the worker exposes himself to a generic risk, and the work-related purpose is not sufficient to establish a causal link between the work and the damage. On the other hand, the damage originating from the use of particularly risky means, such as cableways, aerial tramways, etc., which the worker must necessarily use to reach his place of work, is compensable; or also when the worker is obliged to pass over footbridges or along difficult paths traced on the edge of precipices, generally not used by others, or along railways, etc.
In any case, compensability is not tied to the risk faced in the time strictly destined for the work process and in the actual place of work; but accidents occurring during the small pauses of work and those occurring when the worker moves from one point to another to receive orders or to attend to the physiological needs of the organism are also indemnifiable.
As regards the risk faced for the performance of tasks extraneous to those proper to the worker, non-compensability is admitted when the work is performed for amusement or for one's own utility or that of third parties; on the other hand, the damage originating from the work of rescuing fellow workers or superiors is compensable, just as the damage caused by criminal actions of third persons (aggressions, brawls, etc.) is indemnifiable, provided that the accident was caused by reasons directly or indirectly connected with the work.
On the basis of the norms set out above, anthrax is recognized as a compensable accident, whereas malarial infection is not, because whoever contracts malaria in a given locality is the victim of a generic risk, common to all the inhabitants of that region; however, in the case of death from pernicious malaria, Art. 329 of the Consolidated Text of the Health Laws provides for the payment of a subsidy. Likewise indemnifiable are pneumonia a frigore, tetanus, rabies, and tuberculosis inoculated by means of wounds (attendants of anatomical rooms, butchers, etc.).
Occupational diseases are distinguished from accidents; they derive from unavoidable conditions of insalubrity inherent in certain work processes. In occupational diseases there do not exist that chance and that unpredictability which are instead an attribute of the accident.
In Italy, insurance against workplace accidents and occupational diseases was made compulsory by Royal Decree No. 1765 of 17 August 1935. Art. 7 provides that the cost of the insurance must be borne exclusively by the employer, and Art. 11 establishes that the report of the accident must be made within two days of the day on which the employer learned of it and must be accompanied by a medical certificate. Art. 21 then lists the benefits of the insurance, which are as follows: 1) a daily allowance for temporary incapacity; 2) an annuity for permanent incapacity; 3) an annuity to survivors in the event of death; 4) medical and surgical treatment; 5) the provision of prosthetic appliances. Art. 39 contains the rules to be followed in establishing the wage on the basis of which the amount of the annuity to be paid to the worker or to the survivors is to be calculated. Under Art. 25, the amount of the annuity for incapacity may be revised at the request of the holder of the annuity or of the insurance institution in the event of a decrease or increase in the capacity for work, and under Arts. 32 and 33 the injured person may not, without justified reason, refuse to undergo the medical and surgical treatment, including surgical operations, that the insurance institution considers necessary, even after the annuity has been established. The insurance is administered by the Istituto Nazionale per l'Assicurazione contro gli infortuni sul lavoro, with the exceptions set out in Art. 48. There are provisions concerning the composition of disputes over the right to the indemnity and its settlement (Art. 51 and following). For the assessment of the percentage degree of incapacity there is a table listing the most important anatomical and functional impairments that give entitlement to the establishment of an annuity. Among the measures in favor of workers who have suffered harm at work, mention should be made of the Istituto Nazionale per l'Assistenza ai grandi invalidi del lavoro, created by Law No. 1416 of 19 July 1929.
Finally, mention should be made of the Ente Nazionale di Propaganda per la Prevenzione Infortuni, a public-law body legally recognized by Royal Decree No. 2176 of 25 October 1938, and of the Istituti di patronato e di assistenza sociale reorganized by Decree No. 804 of 29 July 1947.
It has been demonstrated that more than half of accident cases are attributable to the human factor; the efforts of scholars therefore tend to bring out, through the analysis of the trade and the elaboration of professional psychophysiological profiles, the aptitudes most involved according to the work, so as to be able to implement effective vocational guidance and, if possible, effective selection.
Bibliography17 works
Eleuterio Boganelli