Kurtiak v. Workmen's Compensation Appeal Board

635 A.2d 732, 160 Pa. Commw. 637, 1993 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 774
CourtCommonwealth Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedDecember 23, 1993
Docket1386 C.D. 1993 and 1485 C.D. 1993
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 635 A.2d 732 (Kurtiak 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
Kurtiak v. Workmen's Compensation Appeal Board, 635 A.2d 732, 160 Pa. Commw. 637, 1993 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 774 (Pa. Ct. App. 1993).

Opinions

PALLADINO, Judge.

Regina M. Kurtiak (Claimant) and Western Sizzlin’ Steakhouse (Employer) cross appeal from an order of the Workmen’s Compensation Appeal Board (Board) which reversed the referee’s decision granting Claimant’s claim petition and also reversed the referee’s decision granting Employer’s modification petition under The Pennsylvania Workmen’s Compensation Act (Act).1 We affirm in part and reverse and remand in part.

The record reveals that Claimant was a food preparation worker for Employer, and on April 4, 1988 Claimant sustained a work-related injury to her right arm and shoulder when she lifted a bus pan of hot chile. Pursuant to a notice of compensation payable, Claimant began receiving total disability benefits on May 4,1988. Employer paid medical expenses relative to Claimant’s right arm and shoulder including expenses for surgery to repair a torn rotator cuff in Claimant’s right shoulder. When Employer refused to pay additional medical bills incurred by Claimant for the treatment of carpal tunnel syndrome in both hands, Claimant filed a claim petition. Thereafter, Employer filed a modification petition asserting that Claimant’s disability had changed from total to partial.

The referee granted Claimant’s claim petition, ordering Employer to pay the medical bills'in question. The referee also granted Employer’s modification petition, reducing Claimant’s benefits from total to partial.

[641]*641Both parties appealed to the Board. The Board, without taking additional testimony, sustained both appeals. Specifically, the Board reversed the referee’s decision granting Claimant’s claim petition and reversed the referee’s decision granting Employer’s modification petition.

Both parties filed petitions for review, and the petitions were consolidated before this court. On appeal to this court, the issues presented are: 1) whether the Board erred in concluding that Employer was not responsible for the payment of medical expenses incurred in the treatment of Claimant’s bi-lateral carpal tunnel syndrome; 2) whether the Board erred in concluding that Employer failed to establish that Claimant’s disability had decreased; and 3) whether referee erred in his determination of the appropriate partial disability rate.2

With respect to the Claimant’s claim petition, we note that, in order for an employer to be liable for a claimant’s medical treatment, the treatment must be causally connected to the claimant’s work-related injury. King v. Workmen’s Compensation Appeal Board (Wendell H. Stone Co.), 132 Pa.Commonwealth Ct. 292, 572 A.2d 845 (1990). Furthermore, it is the claimant’s burden to establish the necessary causal connection. King. Unless there is an obvious causal connection between a work incident and a subsequent injury, the claimant bears the burden of presenting unequivocal medical testimony to establish the requisite causation. Thomas Jefferson University Hospital v. Workmen’s Compensation Appeal Board (Giordano), 116 Pa.Commonwealth Ct. 392, 541 A.2d 1171 (1988).

In the instant case, the work injury occurred when Claimant jarred herself while lifting a bus tub of chile. She immediately noticed pain in her shoulders, and thereafter her principal problem was with her right shoulder and arm. The [642]*642Notice of Compensation Payable lists Claimant’s injuries as “pulled muscles in right arm, neck and shoulder.” Eventually, Claimant underwent surgery to correct a torn rotator cuff in her right shoulder, and Employer paid all associated medical expenses.

Claimant did not seek treatment for any problems with her hands until November of 1989. The disputed medical expenses incurred for the treatment of Claimant’s hands are dated February 8, 1990 through October 25, 1990. Because the nature of Claimant’s injury on April 4, 1988 was a jarring injury to her shoulder, there is no obvious causal connection between that incident, which resulted in injury to Claimant’s right shoulder, and the subsequent medical treatment for Claimant’s hands. Claimant, therefore, under King had to establish a causal connection by unequivocal medical testimony.

In support of her burden, Claimant proffered the deposition testimony of Dr. James P. Bradley, M.D.

With respect to the cause of Claimant’s carpal tunnel syndrome, Dr. Bradley testified as follows:

A. First of all, you have got to understand carpal tunnel syndrome. There is [sic] other things that can give you carpal tunnel syndrome. There is a group of things, and when you get carpal tunnel syndrome you go in your mind through those.

Diabetes can give it to you. Hypoparathyroidism can give it to you. Hyperthyroidism can give it to you. Myxedema can give it to you. Chronic synovitis can give it to you. That’s all been proven. She did not have those other said things, but she was a baker and—

Q. Is a baker—

A. A baker is a repetitive motion job with the wrists. .Just like a hairdresser. ..Just like a dentist. Those are repetitive high motion jobs with the wrists that have been shown to be correlated in studies with carpal tunnel syndrome.

[643]*643Q. So then, Doctor, do you have an opinion within a reasonable degree of medical certainty as to the cause of the condition for which you treated [Claimant] relative to the carpal tunnel syndrome?

A. She had bilateral carpal tunnel syndrome. I believed, and I said it in my notes, that this was job related due to the repetitive activity of being a baker.

Bradley Deposition, 8/20/91 at 7-8.

Upon a review of Dr. Bradley’s testimony, we find no assertion that Claimant’s carpal tunnel syndrome was caused by the April 4, 1988 work-related injury. Because the evidence introduced by Claimant fails to establish a causal connection between the work-related injury and Claimant’s bilateral carpal tunnel syndrome, Employer is not liable for the payment of medical expenses associated with Claimant’s carpal tunnel syndrome.

Accordingly, the order of the Board with respect to the nonpayment of these medical expenses is affirmed.

With respect to Employer’s modification petition, Employer contends that Claimant’s disability has decreased from full disability to partial disability.

Where an employer seeks to modify a claimant’s workmen’s compensation benefits from full to partial, it is the employer’s burden to establish that the claimant’s disability has decreased. This burden is satisfied when the employer shows that the claimant’s condition has changed and that other work is available which the claimant is capable of performing. Kachinski v. Workmen’s Compensation Appeal Board (Vepco Construction Co.), 516 Pa. 240, 532 A.2d 374 (1987). Once the employer has met this burden, the burden shifts to the claimant to establish a good faith follow through on the job referrals. Kachinski; Champion Home Builders Company v. Workmen’s Compensation Appeal Board (Ickes), 136 Pa.Commonwealth Ct. 612, 585 A.2d 550 (1990), petition for allowance of appeal denied, 528 Pa.

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Kurtiak v. Workmen's Compensation Appeal Board
635 A.2d 732 (Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania, 1993)

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Bluebook (online)
635 A.2d 732, 160 Pa. Commw. 637, 1993 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 774, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kurtiak-v-workmens-compensation-appeal-board-pacommwct-1993.