On the Pulse…Marshall Dennehey Is Happy to Celebrate Our Recent Appellate Victories*

John Hare and Shane Haselbarth (Philadelphia, PA) obtained a unanimous, precedential opinion from the Pennsylvania Superior Court, which ruled that the general contractor John and Shane represented in a construction accident case was the plaintiff’s statutory employer and, thus, immune from suit under the Workers’ Compensation Act. The plaintiff, the roofing subcontractor’s employee, fell through an uncovered hole in the library roof the general contractor had contracted with the library to remove and replace. The Superior Court determined that all five elements of the statutory employer test set forth in McDonald v. Levinson Steel Co., 153 A. 424 (Pa. 1930) were satisfied, vacated the $5.6 million judgment entered on the jury’s verdict for the plaintiff, and remanded for judgment to be entered in favor of the general contractor. Yoder v. McCarthy Constr., Inc., 293 A.3d 1 (Pa. Super. 2023), reargument denied (Apr. 11, 2023).

Audrey Copeland (King of Prussia, PA) convinced the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court to reverse the order of the Workers’ Compensation Appeal Board which had “erased” the employer’s 500-week credit for partial disability benefits paid after a September 2008 modification of the claimant’s status. The court disagreed with the Appeal Board and held that the January 14, 2019, reinstatement of the claimant to total disability status did not convert the weeks of prior partial disability payments into total disability benefits, and that the Board’s conclusion “serves to defeat” the purpose of Section 3(2) of Act 111, which expressly grants credit for previous payments of partial disability. Gonzalez v. Guizzetti Farms, Inc., 2023 WL 2979052 (Pa. Cmwlth. April 18, 2023). 

*Results do not guarantee a similar result.

_{Defense Digest, Vol. 29, No. 2, June 2023, is prepared by Marshall Dennehey to provide information on recent legal developments of interest to our readers. This publication is not intended to provide legal advice for a specific situation or to create an attorney-client relationship. ATTORNEY ADVERTISING pursuant to New York RPC 7.1. © 2023 Marshall Dennehey. All Rights Reserved. This article may not be reprinted without the express written permission of our firm. For reprints, contact tamontemuro@mdwcg.com.}