Supreme Court of Pennsylvania to Determine Whether Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania Applied Firefighter Presumption Correctly

Back in August, 2016, we discussed the case of City of Philadelphia Fire Department v. Workers’ Compensation Appeal Board (Sladek).  For those who do not recall, this was the case (well, one of several recent cases actually) which determined that a firefighter must prove the cancer he or she developed was of a type caused by the listed carcinogen, before the firefighter could use the presumption in Section 108 (making the obtaining of workers’ compensation benefits easier for the firefighter).  The Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania had vacated the decision of the Workers’ Compensation Judge (WCJ), which granted the Claim Petition.

While an aggrieved party has the right to appeal any decision of a WCJ to Commonwealth Court (after first appealing to the Workers’ Compensation Appeal Board (WCAB)), the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania has the power to decide which appeals it will accept.  The fact the Court has now accepted appeal in this matter suggests that they wish to clarify the reading of Section 108(r).  Which way they will find is anyone’s guess at this point, though we will be following the developments closely.