The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has ruled that a flight attendant who slipped and fell while traveling to the airport on a shuttle bus from the parking lot was injured in the scope of her employment.

In reaching its decision, the justices upheld the ruling of the Commonwealth Court in favor of plaintiff Betty Bockelman, which held that the parking lot at Philadelphia International Airport where Bockelman parked and took the shuttle to work was, despite being owned by the city of Philadelphia, critical for her employment. The court rejected US Airways' argument that Bockelman's transit was not part of her employment.

"Bockelman used the airport parking lot and shuttle service to enter and exit her workplace. As part of US Airways' business relationship with the airport, US Airways clearly was aware that the Division of Aviation would make employee parking available to the airline's employees," Justice David Wecht wrote in the court's majority opinion.

"Indeed, the evidence presented to the WCJ suggests that, had the division not done so, US Airways would have been obligated under its collective bargaining agreement with the Association of Flight Attendants to reimburse flight attendants like Bockelman for the cost of airport parking," Wecht continued. "Additionally, US Airways was required to (and did) obtain [Secured Identification Display Area] badges—which could then be used to enter the division's employee parking lots—for all of its Philadelphia-based flight attendants."

Justices Max Baer and Kevin Dougherty filed concurring opinions.

Baer, joined Justice Sallie Updyke Mundy, wrote to distance himself from the majority's indication that the Commonwealth Court's rulings in Waronsky v. Workers' Compensation Appeal Board (Mellon Bank), Ortt v. WCAB (PPL Services) and PPL v. WCAB (Kloss) were unpersuasive and based on a fundamental misunderstanding of the Supreme Court's 1978 ruling in Epler v. North American Rockwell.

Those cases, unlike Bockelman and Epler, Baer said, involved claimants who were injured in parking lots that were optional to park in.

Justice Kevin Dougherty wrote separately to emphasize that the majority's opinion should not be interpreted "as expanding Epler v. North American Rockwell Corp. to all avenues of ingress to and egress from the workplace."

According to court documents, Bockelman drove to the Philadelphia International Airport every day for work and parked in the employee lot. She would then board a shuttle bus to the terminal and take one at the end of the day to return to the parking lot.

On Jan. 23, 2015, she slipped in a puddle of water in the bus and fell while trying to put her luggage on an overhead rack. She crushed her left foot. She filed a workers' compensation claim and the judge ruled in her favor, holding that the injury occurred on the employer's premises, Bockelman's presence on the shuttle bus was required by the nature of her employment, and her injury was caused by the condition of the premises.

US Airways argued that it did not own the parking lot or the bus, so the injury did not occur on its premises. It also contested that Bockelman was required to use the bus, claiming US Airways never ordered employees to use any specific mode of transportation to get to work.

However, Wecht said Epler was controlling.

"We stand by Epler's conclusion that the phrase 'the employer's premises' in Section 301(c)(1) of the act should be construed liberally to include any area that is integral to the employer's business operations, including any reasonable means of ingress to or egress from the workplace," he said, adding that, given the facts of Bockelman's case, "we have little difficulty concluding that the parking lot and shuttle were connected with, and thus integral to, US Airways' business operations at the Philadelphia International Airport."

Alfred J. Carlson III of Martin Law in Philadelphia represents Bockelman.

"It's a great decision for injured workers in Pennsylvania and employees who work at the Philadelphia airport," Carlson said of the Supreme Court's ruling.

Kimberly A. Zabroski of Littler Mendelson in Pittsburgh represents US Airways and not return a call seeking comment.