Owcp

In this appeal, we consider the circumstances under which a suicide may be com-pensable under the Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act, 33 U.S.C. §§ 901-950 . We hold that evidence that a claimant planned his suicide does not nec essarily preclude compensation under the Act because the proper inquiry is whether the claimant’s work-related injury caused him to attempt suicide. We therefore grant the petition for review and remand for further proceedings. On remand, the question is whether there is a direct and unbroken chain of causation between the claimant’s work-related injury and his suicide attempt. We need not and do not reach any other issues urged by the parties.

I

In 2001, while working as a ship laborer, William Kealoha fell about 25 to 50 feet from a barge to a dry dock, landing on a steel floor. He suffered blunt trauma to the head, chest, and abdomen; a fractured rib and scapula; and knee and back pain. Kealoha later resumed work at his employer, Leeward Marine Inc., but after a while, left Leeward. He filed a workers’ compensation claim under the Longshore Act for the injuries from his fall.

In 2003, Kealoha shot himself in the head, causing…