Supreme Court Rules that if Employers Fires You for Pre-injury Disciplinary Infraction, that’s Okay

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court in a 2008 decision has reversed the law of the Commonwealth in effect since 1991 by holding that Employers are not liable for workers’ compensation benefits even if they invoke a pre-injury disciplinary infraction to justify a post-injury fault discharge. Reversing the Courts prior decision in Portanova where a claimant who was injured at work was discharged because of misconduct which occurred, not only prior to the work injury, but also prior to the payment of workers’ compensation benefits, who was still entitled to workers’ compensation benefits, the Supreme Court now believes that employers can now stop paying compensation benefits if it can establish that the injured worker was fired for conduct amounting to bad faith.