In Re: Estate of W. Herold; Apl of: Univ of Pgh.

Summary

Justice Wecht dissented from the majority's interpretation of the Occupational Disease Act, arguing that its text makes the exclusivity provision applicable to occupational-disease claims even when the disease manifests outside the statutory period. The dissent contended that the legislature intentionally created a system in which some claimants receive neither administrative benefits nor a tort remedy, and that the court should not use constitutional avoidance to rewrite the statute. Justice Wecht also would have overturned the prior interpretation that allowed late-manifesting claims to proceed in tort.