Court Opinion

ID: 9756785
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 21:55:43.512591+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:28:30.491471
License: Public Domain

DISSENTING OPINION BY
Senior Judge McCLOSKEY.
I agree with the majority opinion insofar as it concluded that the testimony of John Haggerty, Assistant Police Chief for the Philadelphia Housing Authority (Em*246ployer), did not constitute impermissible hearsay as alleged by Lionell Graves (Claimant). However, I respectfully dissent insofar as the majority opinion concluded that said testimony was sufficient to support the determination of the Workers’ Compensation Judge (WCJ) that Claimant was acting outside the course and scope of his employment at the time of the shooting.
As the majority opinion references, Mr. Haggerty^ acknowledged that in certain circumstances Claimant was authorized to take police action while off-duty. However, Mr. Haggerty testified as to his opinion that Claimant’s actions on the night of the shooting did not constitute proper police action.1 I do not believe that Claimant’s alleged failure to follow proper police protocol removes him from the course and scope of his employment. Indeed, following this logic, the majority would have to conclude that any employee in any occupation who violates a work procedure/protocol takes himself out of the course of employment, thereby rendering himself ineligible for workers’ compensation benefits. In essence, such reasoning injects negligence into a workers’ compensation case, a theory that workers’ compensation was specifically designed to avoid.
Further, while the majority points out that the WCJ rejected Claimant’s testimony as not credible, the WCJ’s findings of fact essentially mirror Claimant’s recitation of the events of the night in question, including the fact that Claimant repeatedly identified himself as a police officer throughout the incident, even in the moments immediately preceding the shooting. Indeed, with certain parts of Mr. Haggerty’s memorandum/report excluded by the WCJ as hearsay, which parts included the chronology of events on the night in question, Claimant’s testimony was the only evidence upon which the WCJ could rely for these findings.
Moreover, Mr. Haggerty specifically testified before the WCJ that housing authority officers are authorized to take police action in certain circumstances while off-duty, including making arrests.2 (R.R. at 42a-43a, 55a). The question in these types of cases is whether the off-duty officer is furthering his employer’s interests and whether the off-duty officer’s actions are customary and encouraged by an employer. Consequently, rather than focus on questions relating to the manner of Claimant’s action and the conformity to proper police action, the WCJ should have concentrated her evaluation on the factual question of whether Claimant, in acting on the belief that he was authorized to make arrests while off-duty, took action with the intent to accomplish an arrest of the person who shot him. The record is devoid of any evidence or findings in this regard. Hence, I would vacate the decision and order of the Workers’ Compensation Appeal Board (Board) and remand this case to the Board, with the direction to remand the matter to the WCJ, for additional evidence and further findings in this regard.

. In this regard, Mr. Haggerty noted Claimant's failure to frisk the assailant upon noticing a bulge in the assailant's pocket and his walking towards the assailant outside the bar with a gun pointed directly at him instead of ducldng and taking cover.

. Admittedly, Mr. Haggerty’s testimony as to the extent of a housing officer’s authority is confusing, as the officer’s powers and duties appear to be limited to the grounds and buildings of the housing authority itself, with the exception of hot pursuit. See Section 10 of the Act of May 28, 1937, P.L. 955, as amended, 35 P.S. § 1550(fl).