Supreme Judicial Court hears argument on whether utility lineman’s COVID-19 illness is a work-related personal injury

Attorney John Kaniff, representing Travelers Insurance, told the Supreme Judicial Court that the central question in Stacy v. Unitil is whether the administrative factfinder erred in concluding the employee’s COVID-19 infection was a compensable personal injury under the workers’ compensation statute.

The case turns on the first sentence of G.L. c. 152, § 17A, which Kaniff summarized as applying to a “personal injury that stems from an infectious or contagious disease if the nature of the employment is such that the hazard of contracting such diseases by an employee is inherent in the employment.” Kaniff urged the court to treat the statutory phrase as a question of law for the courts, not one that the Industrial Accident Reviewing Board should resolve with deference, saying, “this is interpretation of the statute and that's deferred… left to the courts, not to the Industrial Accident Reviewing Board.”

Attorney Joe McKenna, representing Jeff Stacy, urged a broader reading. McKenna emphasized that the statute’s language is expansive and that…