Court Opinion

ID: 9636673
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 14:38:18.543129+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:09:48.078476
License: Public Domain

DISSENTING OPINION BY
Senior Judge FLAHERTY.
I respectfully dissent. The majority distinguishes the McLaughlin case where the Trooper was compensated because he had finished eating and had left the restaurant when he tripped on the way to the patrol car in the parking lot and injured himself. The dispositive inquiry in McLaughlin was whether the police officer was engaged in an obligatory task. In this case, the Troopers were a three hour drive away from their home station conducting surveillance in a homicide investigation. As such, it was obligatory for the Troopers to eat their meals in restaurants away from their station or go hungry. I believe that the Troopers were injured in the performance of their duties because, without adequate nutrition from these meals, it would be difficult for some Troopers to concentrate on the performance of their surveillance duties and unprofessional to ask them to forego meals. Therefore, the Troopers had an obligation to obtain adequate nutrition to perform their duties and, as such, the injury suffered here in the process of getting that nutrition in the performance of those duties would be com-pensable. Accordingly, I would hold that the Hepatitis A that the Troopers contracted after eating a meal at Chi Chi’s is an injury for which they are eligible for benefits under the Heart and Lung Act.
- Furthermore, I note that Trooper Davy Testified that his sergeant asked the Troopers to avoid overtime charges by filling out their time sheets to indicate that they only worked from 8:00 AM until 4:00 PM despite it being required of the Troopers to work overtime on the surveillance after 4:00 PM. However, the Troopers testified that they went to dinner at 5:00 PM and, after dinner, they conducted surveillance for approximately one hour. I find such conduct by the State Police to be a direct order to perform duties after 4:00 PM although in a circumspect fashion because the Troopers were directed to misrepresent their time by a superior officer. This direction to misrepresent does, however, bring the Troopers’ conduct and their subsequent injury within the ambit of the performance of duty because of the emphasis placed upon the time period involved if nothing else. The State Police should be role models for the citizens of Pennsylvania and should not request that their Troopers inaccurately report the amount of time that they have worked. It is also shameful for the State Police to ask the Troopers to misrepresent their hours on their time sheet and then attempt to use that misrepresentation to bolster their argument that the Troopers’ injuries were not work-related because those injuries oc*1239curred after the time the time sheet indicates that the Troopers stopped working.
Accordingly, I would reverse the order of the State Police Commissioner.