PA High Court Confirms Lower Court Decision in University of Pittsburgh Mesothelioma Claim
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court issued an extensive 52-page ruling in response to an appeal of a mesothelioma case decision made by a trial court. The personal injury claim was brought by relatives of a facilities engineer against the University of Pittsburgh. The tribunal affirmed two lower courts’ rulings that when work-related illnesses emerge outside the statutory timeframes of workers’ compensation and the Occupational Disease Act, former workers may pursue civil lawsuits against their employers.
Mesothelioma Lawsuit Filed by Engineer’s Family Following Four Decades of University Service
Mr. Herold’s initial mesothelioma lawsuit detailed his years serving the University of Pittsburgh as a facilities engineer. He held that position from 1976 through 2004, and then was promoted to supervisor, a position he held until his 2015 retirement. He claimed that he’d encountered asbestos materials starting in 2004, and blamed this exposure for his April 2019 diagnosis with the rare asbestos-related form of cancer. He died in April 2022, eighteen years after his final asbestos contact and seven years beyond his final day working for the institution.
The University of Pittsburgh responded to the mesothelioma claim by filing a petition for summary judgment, seeking its dismissal. They argued that the legal issue fell under the rules of the Occupational Disease Act (ODA) and therefore belonged under the jurisdiction of the Workmen’s Compensation Board. This position was rejected by a trial court, which observed that Mr. Herold’s final exposure had occurred beyond the ODA’s statutory deadlines, and that the statute’s ‘savings clause’ did not apply since the specific disease was absent from that provision, thus allowing the exposure victim to pursue his case in civil court. This assessment was confirmed by an appellate tribunal, which recognized that the Workers Compensation Act and ODA occasionally fail to provide workers with workplace-acquired mesothelioma the remedy they need.
University’s Appeals Rejected in Asbestos Cancer Case
After examining and thoroughly evaluating both parties’ positions, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court validated both lower tribunals’ rulings. In the decision authored by Chief Justice Todd, the court clarified that ‘honoring the “Grand Bargain”‘ embodied in the commonwealth’s statutes compensating injured workers means that a common law claim for redress of an illness or fatality beyond the limitation period established by the ODA does not bar an injured worker from bringing a common law claim against their employer. The matter may now proceed for jury determination.
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