The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania recently granted a petition for allowance of appeal in the matter of Pipeline Systems v. Workers’ Compensation Appeal Board (Pounds), Pet, 384 WAL 2015. The underlying case sought to determine whether a “good Samaritan” was in the course and scope of his employment when he was injured while attempting to assist a fellow employee who fell into a concrete pit. The Commonwealth Court’s main focus was not on the employee’s actions, which the employer deemed a departure from his normal job, but on what the claimant was doing at the time of his alleged departure. Given this focus, the result in Pipeline Systems was favorable to injured workers and seemingly consistent with a significant body of case law.
Since the result in Pipeline Systems is ultimately fact-specific, it is important to note that the claimant was installing a pipeline at a sanitation plant, an activity that both parties agreed was in the course and scope of his employment, when an emergency arose in the nature of a co-worker falling into a pit 30 feet from where the claimant was working. Did the claimant’s efforts to render aid take him out of that course and scope of his employment?
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