City of Philadelphia Fire Department v. Workers' Compensation Appeal Board (Sladek)

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF PENNSYLVANIA EASTERN DISTRICT CITY OF PHILADELPHIA FIRE : No. 405 EAL 2016 DEPARTMENT : : : Petition for Allowance of Appeal from v. : the Order of the Commonwealth Court : : WORKERS' COMPENSATION APPEAL : BOARD (SLADEK) : : : PETITION OF: SCOTT SLADEK : ORDER PER CURIAM AND NOW, this 1st day of March, 2017, the Petition for Allowance of Appeal is GRANTED. The issues, as stated by petitioner, are: (1) Whether the Commonwealth Court, in a case of first impression, committed an error of law by misinterpreting Section 108(r) to require a firefighter diagnosed with cancer caused by an IARC Group I carcinogen to establish exposure to a specific carcinogen that causes his/her cancer in order to gain the rebuttable presumption provided by the law? (2) Whether the Commonwealth Court committed an error of law by concluding that a legislatively-created presumption of compensability may be competently rebutted by a general causation opinion, based entirely upon epidemiology, without any opinion specific to the firefighter/claimant making the claim?