BOSTON -- The Supreme Judicial Court ruled Tuesday that a woman who suffered a heart attack after she was laid off was entitled to a full disability pension, according to the Salem News.

The woman, a secretary for the city’s Department of Public Works, was informed that her position would be eliminated in March 2000.

The paper reports that Claire Cole left the office in tears after receiving the news from her boss and then suffered a heart attack one hour later.

Cole filed for a disability pension, citing the layoff and several years of job-related stress as the causes of the heart attack. Cole said that she was unable to do her job, which would be cut later in the year, as a result.

Courts wrestled with the case for nine years, stymied by the question of whether a heart attack can be considered a job-related injury. The Supreme Court on Tuesday affirmed a previous decision from the Contributory Retirement Appeal Board that Cole should be awarded the disability benefits.

Cole died of cancer five years into the proceedings, according to the paper. Her estate will now be awarded the resulting benefits, which equal the difference between her disability pension and the pension she received for 3½ before she died, the paper reports.

Paul Applebaum, an attorney who represented Cole’s estate, said that her survivors were not motivated by the money involved, which he said amounts to a small sum. He said Cole’s family felt it was important for the court to recognize that a medical panel of three cardiologists had ruled that there was a link between the layoff news and the heart attack, according to the paper.

Applebaum said he did not believe the case would set any legal precedent about disability suits as layoffs increase across the country.

"This is a very unusual scenario," he told the Salem News.

Alan Pierce, a longtime Salem attorney who discussed the case with the paper, agreed with the court ruling and said that the case was easier to make because the heart attack followed so closely after Cole’s meeting with her supervisor.

"Clearly if she had gone about her business and it happened 12 hours later or 18 hours later, it would have been much more difficult to make that case," Pierce told the paper.