The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has dramatically increased the liability of employers for their employees’ latent occupational diseases based on its interoperation of the word “it.”  In the November 22, 2013 decision in Tooey v. AK Steel Corp.,the Pennsylvania Supreme Court stripped the protections of the Pennsylvania Worker’s Compensation Act for latent occupational diseases that manifest more than 300 weeks after employment ends.

The Pennsylvania Worker’s Compensation Act has an exclusivity provision that prohibits employees from bringing civil lawsuits against employers for injuries and diseases that are covered. According to the Act: “whenever occupational disease is the basis for compensation, for disability or death under this act, it shall apply only to disability or death resulting from such disease and occurring within three hundred weeks after the last date of employment.”