A 2011 change to the Workers’ Compensation Act extending the time limitation for a firefighter to claim that his cancer is an occupational disease does not apply retroactively, the Commonwealth Court has ruled.
A unanimous en banc panel ruled March 9 in City of Warren v. Workers’ Compensation Appeal Board (Haines) that Act 46, which changed from 300 to 600 weeks the date by which a claim must be filed after a firefighter’s last date of exposure, was a substantive change to the law and is not retroactive without a specific retroactivity clause. The ruling reversed a Workers’ Compensation Appeal Board order granting Sharon Haines’ fatal claim petition on behalf of her husband, Thomas Haines, who died of colon cancer in August 2009, six years after retiring from the Warren Fire Department.
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