A decision of Pennsylvania’s Workers’ Compensation Appeal Board awarding death benefits to the surviving spouse and child of an employee who committed suicide was supported by substantial evidence in the record in spite of the fact that the suicide appeared to...
Where an employer’s examining physician opined that the workers’ compensation claimant had fully recovered from her injuries—the physician based his opinion, in large part, on the fact that claimant had not sought medical treatment from any physician...
Applying the three-prong Slaugenhaupt test [see Slaugenhaupt v. United States Steel Corp. , 31 Pa. Commw. 329, 376 A.2d 271 (1977), the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania found that a janitor’s claim was not barred by the going and coming rule when he slipped and...
While Pennsylvania law authorizes termination of workers' compensation indemnity benefits during periods of incarceration after conviction [see Section 306(a.1) of the state’s Workers’ Compensation Act, 77 P.S. § 511.1], that provision cannot...
That an employer operates its business on Sundays and, therefore, would have been able to receive a notice of injury by an injured employee on that day, has no effect on the 120-day notice period found in Section 311 of the Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Act...
Observing that the issue of whether an employer had reasonably contested a claim was a question of law fully reviewable by the appellate court, a Pennsylvania appellate court reversed a decision of the Appeals Board that rule an employer's contest was reasonable...
Where an injured employee decided to resign from his modified-duty position and stay at home to care for his children while his wife worked outside the home, it was appropriate for a WCJ to suspend the employee's wage loss benefits, finding he had removed himself...
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court's decision in Protz v. Workers’ Compensation Appeal Board (Derry Area School District) , 639 Pa. 645, 161 A.3d 827 (Pa. 2017)](" Protz II ), should be utilized in all cases still pending at the time it was announced by the...
Acknowledging that in two earlier decisions, the Pennsylvania appellate court had held that NFL players are “seasonal” employees for purposes of competing their average weekly wage following a work-related injury, the appellate court said the circumstances...
The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania continued to define an employer’s “premises” broadly, indicating the term must be understood to include any area that is integral to an employer’s business operations, including reasonable means of ingress or egress from the employee...
A Pennsylvania appellate court affirmed a trial court’s decision granting summary judgment to the defendant corporation on the basis of the state’s application of the so-called “borrowed employee” doctrine since the plaintiff had been employed...
Pennsylvania’s “ Protz Fix,” which amended the state’s Workers’ Compensation Act so as to require a physician’s use of the Sixth Edition of the AMA Guides to determine the respective level of impairment for an injured worker [see 77 Pa. Stat. § 511.3], was not...
A divided Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, reiterating the holding in one of its earlier decisions, held that a workers’ compensation carrier may not maintain a third-party civil action against an alleged tortfeasor unless the injured employee has either assigned...
Where a restaurant owner hired an experienced remodeler to complete work at the restaurant prior to its opening, neither the owner nor the restaurant was engaged in the “construction industry,” held the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. Accordingly, Pennsylvania’s...
A self-employed spouse, who separated from his wife two years before her work-related death is not entitled to workers’ compensation dependency benefits as he failed to show that he received a substantial portion of support from his estranged wife at the...