By The PA. AFL-CIO
– What started as an ordinary work day at a sewage treatment plant, quickly went wrong. Franklin Pound, who usually worked in the concrete pit at the Sewickley Borough facility was installing a pipeline a short distance away when he heard a commotion. Pound, along with two other workers, rushed to the scene, hoping to lend a helping hand, only to find that they were too late. They found the victim, a fellow worker at the plant, dead at the bottom of the concrete pit. The men, with immense heaviness, began to climb the ladder that led out of the pit. Pound, however, was unable to make it the whole way. He was overwhelmed by a cloud of methane gas, causing a 20 foot free fall that resulted in numerous injuries to his body.
The unfortunate rescue attempt resulted in hefty hospital bills, which Pound hoped to settle through the help of worker’s compensation. Pipeline Systems Inc., Pound’s employer, along with the Continental Western Insurance Company pushed to appeal the claim. They declared that Pound was not performing his assigned duties. The insurance company based their appeal on the claim that Pound’s “compulsion to act as a Good Samaritan was not employment-related,” according to Senior Commonwealth Court Judge James Gardner Colins, who ultimately presided over the case.
Take a moment to think about that claim – essentially that Pound should have ignored an industrial accident 30 feet away from where he was working, and not tried to render assistance to a fellow worker who had been severely injured.
Thankfully, common sense and basic human decency won a victory this week in the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court, when Judge Colins found that Pound’s participation in the rescue attempt fell “within the course and scope of his employment.” He, along with a Commonwealth Court panel, rejected arguments made by Pound’s employer. Because of Colins’ idea of justice and equality, Pound was able to be reimbursed for his attempts to rescue the life of a fellow worker. Colins explained that Pound’s “attempts to render aid to another do not, in and of themselves, constitute an abandonment of employment.”
Remember this case when someone asks “why bother to vote in these judicial elections?” Having good judges on the bench impacts the lives of workers every day in Pennsylvania. If a different judge – one who tended to side more often with business than with workers – had presided over this case, the results could have been disasterous. That’s because a case like the one of Franklin Pound not only impacts the worker bringing suit, it also sets a precedent that makes every employer in the State take notice.
The Pennsylvania AFL-CIO has made endorsements in all of the Statewide Judicial elections coming up in November, supporting David Wecht, Kevin Dougherty, and Christine Donohue for the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. Please CLICK HERE for a complete list of all of our endorsements, and protect your rights as a worker by voting in November and by encouraging all of your co-workers, friends, and family members to do the same!
Source – http://www.paaflcio.org/?p=6143
