Cook v. Unemployment Compensation Board of Review

I dissent. I agree with the majority that the Commonwealth Court’s limitation of Bass v. Commonwealth, 485 Pa. 256, 401 A.2d 1133 (1979), to non-negligent acts of a third party, as distinguished from non-negligent acts of a party himself, leads to anomalous results. Rather than broaden the application of Bass to remove the anomaly, however, I would hold that Bass was wrongly decided and should not be used as a reference point for determining whether circumstances warrant the allowance of an appeal nunc pro tunc.1

Prior to Bass, it was uniformly held that an appeal nunc pro tunc would only be…