Ametek-Thermox Instruments Division v. Workmen's Compensation Appeal Board

605 A.2d 450, 146 Pa. Commw. 262, 1992 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 191
CourtCommonwealth Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedMarch 10, 1992
Docket1413 C.D. 1987
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 605 A.2d 450 (Ametek-Thermox Instruments Division v. Workmen's Compensation Appeal Board) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Ametek-Thermox Instruments Division v. Workmen's Compensation Appeal Board, 605 A.2d 450, 146 Pa. Commw. 262, 1992 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 191 (Pa. Ct. App. 1992).

Opinion

DOYLE, Judge.

The instant case is before us on remand from the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. See Pieper v. Ametek-Thermox Instruments Division, 526 Pa. 25, 584 A.2d 301 (1990). The relevant facts are as follows. Mark J. Pieper (Claimant) suffered a work-related back injury on October 8, 1982 for which he was paid workmen’s compensation benefits by Ametek-Thermox Instruments Division (Employer) pursuant to a notice of compensation payable. On April 11, 1983 he returned to work and signed a final receipt. Eleven days later he suffered a recurrence and benefits were reinstated by a supplemental agreement. On May 31, 1983 Claimant returned to work on a part-time basis and received partial disability benefits. On June 20, 1983 he returned to full-time employment at his pre-injury job and on June 21, 1983 his benefits were terminated by supplemental agreement. Two days later he was laid off. When he was laid off he continued to experience back pain. On September 18, 1984 he filed a reinstatement petition alleging a change in condition as of January 25, 1984. A referee determined that Claimant was totally and permanently disabled and reinstated benefits as of March 9, 1984 (the date one of Claimant’s treating physicians first examined him) subject to periods of credit granted to Employer due to part-time work Claimant had done as a bartender. Employer appealed and the Workmen’s Compensation Appeal Board (Board) affirmed. Appeal to this Court followed.

[265]*265On appeal we reversed in an unreported opinion.1 We opined that because Claimant had signed a supplemental agreement terminating his benefits on June 21, 1983 he was required, in the context of his reinstatement petition, to prove that his present disability was causally related to his work injury of October 1982. Such medical evidence did not appear in the record. Claimant appealed to the Supreme Court. While that Court agreed with our statements of law, it disagreed that causation needed to be demonstrated by Claimant in this case. It premised its reasoning on the absence from the record of the June 23, 1983 supplemental agreement by which Claimant’s benefits had been terminated. Of record, however, was Claimant’s reinstatement petition where, by means of an “x,” he had marked the block “terminated” to describe from what status he sought reinstatement. With regard to this form the Supreme Court stated:

Pieper’s perhaps inartful use of the descriptive word “terminated” in his petition for reinstatement obviously does not, and cannot, supplant the necessity for a legal determination of whether Pieper’s benefits were “terminated” rather than “suspended”, and whether the liability of Ametek was or was not “terminated”, as those terms of art are used, not in ordinary discourse, but under the applicable provisions of the Pennsylvania Workmen’s Compensation Act.[2]
[The] determination by the Commonwealth Court that the “termination of benefits” standard was applicable was improperly based upon an assumption that a supplemental agreement dated June 21, 1983 terminated the “liability” of Ametek. We simply cannot and will not assume, as did the Commonwealth Court, that a supplemental agreement terminated the liability of the employer [266]*266where a final receipt was not signed by the employee, where the controlling supplemental agreement was not submitted into evidence, and where there is evidence of record that Pieper’s disability had not, in fact, terminated when the supplemental agreement was executed.

Pieper, 526 Pa. at 35-36, 584 A.2d at 306.

It must first be understood that the question of whether Claimant’s benefits were terminated or suspended is an important one. For, as both the Supreme Court and this Court recognized, a claimant seeking reinstatement of benefits which are suspended need only establish that his disability continued,3 while a claimant seeking reinstatement of benefits which are terminated must demonstrate a causal connection between the prior work-related injury and the present disability.4

While we are bound by the Supreme Court’s holding that the status quo prior to the filing of the reinstatement petition in this case was not that of a claimant whose benefits had been terminated but rather that of a claimant whose benefits had been suspended, we shall take this opportunity to explain the basis for this Court’s initial conclusion that benefits had been terminated. We had not explained our basis for this conclusion in our original opinion because Claimant’s status immediately prior to the filing of the reinstatement petition had not been contested before this Court. Rather, this issue was apparently raised by the Supreme Court sua sponte. With regard to our conclusion that Claimant’s benefits had been terminated we note the following:

(1) The reinstatement petition not only has the block marked “terminated” checked, but indicates in the same typescript as the “x” the entry of counsel for claimant [267]*267along with that individual’s signature.5
(2) The referee made an explicit finding that Claimant “returned to full duty on June 20, 1983 and disability benefits were terminated by supplemental agreement dated June 21, 1983.”
(3) In Employer’s brief filed in this Court Employer indicated (pp. 5, 10, 13, and 25) that Claimant’s benefits were terminated by supplemental agreement dated June 21, 1983.
(4) In Claimant’s response brief filed in this Court by legal counsel currently representing Claimant the allegation in Employer’s brief that Claimant’s benefits were terminated was not disputed. In addition, in his own brief Claimant twice ADMITTED (pp. 9, 11) that his benefits had been terminated on June 21, 1983.
(5) If Claimant believed that his supplemental agreement of June 21, 1983 was incorrectly entered into (because his disability had not in fact terminated) his remedy was to file a petition to review pursuant to Section 413 of the Act, 77 P.S. § 771.
(6) Nothing in the Act mandates that a termination can be effected only by a final receipt; the statute is to the contrary.
Section 408 of the Act, 77 P.S. § 732, provides:
All notices of compensation payable and agreements for compensation may be modified, suspended, reinstated, or terminated at any time by an agreement or supplemental agreement as the case may be with notice to the department, if the incapacity of an injured employee has increased, decreased, recurred, or temporarily or finally terminated, or if the status of any dependent has changed. (Emphasis added.)

Finally, we wish to express that we share in the frustration obviously experienced by our Supreme Court in this case due to the lack of a pertinent supplemental agreement appearing in the record. It has been the experience of this [268]*268Court in the numerous cases it reviews that underlying supplemental agreements are often not

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

North Pittsburgh Drywall Co. v. Workers' Compensation Appeal Board
59 A.3d 30 (Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania, 2013)
Solyan v. Fontana
49 Pa. D. & C.3d 84 (Erie County Court Common Pleas, 1988)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
605 A.2d 450, 146 Pa. Commw. 262, 1992 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 191, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ametek-thermox-instruments-division-v-workmens-compensation-appeal-board-pacommwct-1992.