total disability
Definitions from Case Law · United States Supreme Court
Definitions from Case Law
From 290 U.S. 551 - Lumbra v. United States · 1934Most cited · 767 citing opinions
Total disability' does not mean helplessness or complete disability, but it includes more than that which is partial.
How the Supreme Court has restated “total disability”
Each Supreme Court definition of “total disability,” sized by how often later courts cited it. “Change” is measured by wording overlap with earlier definitions — a rough signal, not a semantic judgment.
How often courts cite the cases defining “total disability”
Court decisions citing the 3 opinions that defined “total disability” — 1,559 in all, by decade. Counts are citations to the defining cases as a whole, not verified uses of the term. The dip in the most recent years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the latest years.
All 3 definitions, chronological · 1934–1941
Any impairment of mind or body which renders it impossible for the disabled person to follow continuously any substantially gainful occupation shall be deemed, in Articles III and IV, to be total disability
any physical or nervous injury which makes it impossible for a person to follow continuously a substantially gainful occupation at any kind of work for which he was competent or qualified, physically and mentally, or for which he could qualify himself by a reasonable amount of study and training. The word 'total' as applied to 'disability' does not necessarily mean incapacitated to do any work at all. The word 'continuously' means with reasonable regularity.