adopting "substantial contributing factor” standard of causation
How later courts described this case
- adopting "substantial contributing factor” standard of causation
Written by the judges who cited it.
The opinion
FLAHERTY, Justice,
dissenting opinion.
I must dissent inasmuch as Section 301(c)(2) of the Workmen’s Compensation Act clearly requires that death is only compensable when it results from an occupational disease. 77 P.S. § 411(2). Thus, I adhere to my original view, as stated in McCloskey v. Workmen’s Comp. Ap. Bd., 501 Pa. 93, 102-105 , 460 A.2d 237, 241-243 (1983) that compensation must be predicated upon a direct causal connection between the occupational disease and the death. The record in the instant case supports the conclusion that the occupational disease, pneumoconiosis, was only a contributing factor, not a direct cause of death. The direct cause of death was carcinoma, and the testimony is that the pneumoconiosis weakened the decedent and thereby merely hastened his *121 death which resulted from the carcinoma. I would reverse.