Liberato v. Royer

Background

The claimants are the parents of a man who died while working for the defendants. The son died unmarried and without children, and the parents were wholly dependent on him for support but lived in Italy. A Pennsylvania Compensation Board awarded $820, and the award was affirmed by the Court of Common Pleas. The Superior Court reversed, citing a state statute clause that bars “alien parents … not residents of the United States” from compensation, and the state Supreme Court affirmed that reversal. The parents argued that a 1913 treaty with Italy allowed their recovery.

Reasoning

The Court considered whether the Italy treaty required Pennsylvania to pay nonresident alien parents under its Workmen’s Compensation Act. The treaty’s amended Article 3, on its face, protects rights to recover for death caused by negligence or fault and prevents nationality-based restrictions on those negligence-based claims. The Court explained that Pennsylvania law already lets alien nonresident parents sue for wrongful death caused by fault, but the Compensation Act is a distinct, voluntary statutory system that provides no-fault benefits only to residents. Because the treaty’s language and the nature of the compensation scheme point to negligence-based recovery and voluntary statutory arrangements, the Court found the lower courts’ construction correct.

Real world impact

The decision means nonresident parents living abroad cannot collect Pennsylvania no-fault workmen’s compensation benefits simply because of the treaty. This case did not decide whether the parents could win a negligence-based wrongful-death suit, which was not alleged here. The judgment affirming the denial of compensation to these Italian parents was therefore upheld.