A Pennsylvania construction worker was minding his own business, doing his job on a worksite at a sewage plant about 40 miles south of New Castle. Then he found out that a plant employee had fallen into the concrete pit on the jobsite. He rushed to try to rescue the fallen man. Unfortunately, he and two others who mounted the rescue effort were too late: the plant worker was dead.

As the construction worker climbed a ladder out of the pit, he was overwhelmed by methane gas. He plunged 20 feet from the ladder, sustaining serious injuries to his head, left leg, foot, knee, back, ribs and lungs.

Believe it or not, but his employer and his employer's insurer tried to deny his workers' compensation claim, arguing that being a Good Samaritan wasn't part of his job.

However, a Commonwealth Court panel rejected the arguments and said the worker was due his workers' comp benefits after the Sewickley Borough construction site accident.

According to a PennLive.com report, the employer and insurer appealed to the Commonwealth Court after they had already lost at the Pennsylvania Workers' Compensation Appeals Board. It was an extraordinary effort to deny benefits that the court rejected.

One judge noted in an opinion that the argument to deny benefits was that the worker's "compulsion to act as a Good Samaritan was not employment-related."

Unfortunately, this sort of attempt to deny benefits can happen when injuries are severe and medical expenses and wage replacement costs are high. That's when insurers have the most at stake — and so injured workers.

To do all they can to prevent denial of benefits, workers in similar situations will enlist the assistance of a Western Pennsylvania attorney experienced in workers' comp appeals. There is simply too much at stake for the worker and his or her family to try to go through the process alone.