In determining if a party in a workers’ compensation action is the claimant’s statutory employer, Pennsylvania fact finders should bear in mind the “humanitarian purposes” of the state Workers’ Compensation Act, a Commonwealth Court panel has suggested.
Citing a 1992 decision from another Commonwealth Court panel, the judges in Vandervort v. Workers’ Compensation Appeal Board said that the five prongs of the statutory employer test that has been used in Pennsylvania since 1930 may be considered “guidelines.”
