Tioga Orchards, LLC and Nationwide Ins. Co. v. WCAB (Gaffney)

156 A.3d 407, 2017 WL 957760, 2017 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 75
CourtCommonwealth Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedMarch 13, 2017
DocketTioga Orchards, LLC and Nationwide Ins. Co. v. WCAB (Gaffney) - 722 C.D. 2016
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 156 A.3d 407 (Tioga Orchards, LLC and Nationwide Ins. Co. v. WCAB (Gaffney)) 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
Tioga Orchards, LLC and Nationwide Ins. Co. v. WCAB (Gaffney), 156 A.3d 407, 2017 WL 957760, 2017 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 75 (Pa. Ct. App. 2017).

Opinion

OPINION BY

JUDGE COHN JUBELIRER

Toigo Orchards, LLC, and its insurer, Nationwide Insurance Company (together, Employer), petition for review from the April 13, 2016 Order of the Workers’ Compensation Appeal Board (Board), modifying in part, and affirming otherwise, the Workers’ Compensation Judge’s (WCJ) July 14, 2015 Final Decision and Order that granted Earl Gaffney (Claimant) specific loss benefits for the loss of vision in his left eye. Because Claimant had been retired in Florida prior to being hired as a tractor driver to move bins during the apple-picking season, and returned to retirement in Florida after his injury, there are questions about whether he was a seasonal employee, for purposes of determining the correct average weekly wage (AWW), and whether he should be awarded a healing period. On appeal, Employer argues that the Board erred by: (1) reversing the WCJ’s determination that Claimant was a seasonal employee within *409 the meaning of Section 309(e) of the Workers’ Compensation Act (Act), 1 77 P.S. § 582(e); (2) reversing and modifying the WCJ’s calculation of Claimant’s AWW as a seasonal employee pursuant to Section 309(e) of the Act; and (3) reversing the WCJ’s decision to omit an award for a healing period pursuant to Section 306(c)(25) of the Act, 77 P.S. § 513(25). In addition, if the Court concludes that the WCJ properly classified Claimant as a seasonal employee, Claimant has asked whether his AWW should be calculated using the expected earnings provision of Section 309(d.2) of the Act, 77 P.S. § 582(d.2), 2 rather than using Section 309(e), because he had worked less than 13 weeks for Employer at the time of his injury. Upon review, we affirm in part and reverse in part.

I. BACKGROUND

A. Proceedings before the WCJ

On October 8, 2013, Claimant sustained a work-related injury while working for Employer. (Claim Petition, R.R. at 2a.) At the time of the injury, Claimant worked for Employer at the rate of $9.00 per hour and was hired to drive a tractor and move bins for apple pickers in the orchard. (Id. at 4a.) Employer issued a Notice of Temporary Compensation Payable to Claimant on October 29, 2013, and filed a Corrected Statement of Wages with the Bureau of Workers’ Compensation on December 2, 2013, providing a wage calculation based on seasonal employment. (R.R. at 34a-35a.) The resulting AWW was determined to be $35.10 with a compensation rate of $31.59 per week. (H. at 35a.) On January 3, 2014, Employer issued a Medical Only Notice of Compensation Payable to Claimant for an injury described as traumatic iridocyclitis with cystoid macular edema of the left eye. (Board Op. at 1.) Claimant filed a Claim Petition on July 1, 2014, seeking specific loss benefits for the loss of vision in his left eye, indicating that his injury caused him to stop working, and listing Claimant’s job title as “Laborer.” (R.R. at 3a-4a.) Employer filed an Answer denying all material allegations of Claimant’s Petition. (Id. at 8a.)

A pre-trial hearing on the Claim Petition was held before the WCJ on July 29, 2014. (Hr’g Tr., July 29, 2014, R.R. at 38a.) A second hearing was held on December 10, 2014, at which the WCJ bifurcated the proceeding, to first decide Claimant’s status and whether Claimant’s AWW should be calculated as a seasonal employee, and second the medical issues. (Hr’g Tr., Dec. 10, 2014, R.R. at 52a, 122a.) Claimant’s Counsel appeared, and Claimant testified via telephone. Employer appeared and offered the testimony of Jeremiah Calloway, a Federal Crew Chief. A number of documents were entered into evidence, including Claimant’s paystubs and Mr. Callo-way’s Farm Labor Contractor Certificate of Registration.

Claimant testified as follows. 3 He started working for Employer at the beginning of *410 September 2013 as a tractor driver and had previously worked for Employer about 30 years ago as an apple picker. He did not pick fruit for Employer, but moved bins for the apple pickers as they moved from tree to tree, and he did no other work on the farm. Claimant earned $9.00 per hour, his normal working hours were 7:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., and he worked five days a week, Monday through Friday. He was hired only for the apple season and was not promised more work by Mr. Callo-way, a lifelong friend, who hired him. His eye injury occurred when a tree limb knocked his glasses off and scratched his eye as he was getting off of a tractor, he did not return to work afterwards, and he remained in Pennsylvania for approximately two weeks after his injury occurred before returning to Florida. He received Social Security retirement benefits in Florida for about six years prior to starting employment with Employer, and currently receives those benefits; his last job was six and a half years ago working at a chemical plant making fertilizer. Claimant stopped receiving Social Security retirement benefits while he worked for Employer, and when he returned to his home in Florida, he began receiving them again. There was another tractor driver who worked for Employer year-round.

Mr. Calloway testified as follows. 4 He was a Federal Crew Chief for Employer, registered under the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act, 5 whose purpose he explained is to bring people from one state to the next to harvest crops, though he does not transport them. He hired Claimant, with whom he went to school, for the temporary job of driving a tractor around the orchard, not to pick apples. Claimant’s job included hauling and moving people and bins around the orchard. Apple season lasts from September to November, and he did not promise Claimant work after the apple harvest was over. He and the other workers, including Claimant, did not work in the rain. Most of the time, Claimant did work 10-11 hours a day. Mr. Calloway also explained the duties of Employer’s year-round tractor driver, which include spraying, taking care of the farm, computer duties, and, during the apple harvest, hauling apples out of the orchard. Mr. Callo-way lived in Florida and hired crews only for Employer; when the harvest was over, he returned to Florida.

In an initial interlocutory order memorandum, the WCJ credited both Claimant’s and Mr. Calloway’s testimony and found that the job Claimant was hired to perform “was as an extra tractor driver during the apple harvest,” and that the duration of employment was directly associated with the length of the apple picking season. (WCJ Interlocutory Order Memorandum at 4, Findings of Fact (FOF) ¶¶ 6-10.) The WCJ concluded that Claimant’s employment as an “extra tractor driver during the apple harvest” was exclusively seasonal employment. (Id.) The WCJ further concluded that the Corrected Statement of Wages used the correct calculation. (Id., Conclusion of Law (COL) ¶ 1.) Thus, the WCJ granted the Claim Petition and ordered that Claimant’s AWW be calculated based on the seasonal employment calculation used in the Corrected Statement of Wages. (WCJ Interlocutory Order.)

Upon request that a final decision and order be rendered, the WCJ subsequently issued a final order making the same findings of fact as the interlocutory order memorandum.

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Bluebook (online)
156 A.3d 407, 2017 WL 957760, 2017 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 75, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/tioga-orchards-llc-and-nationwide-ins-co-v-wcab-gaffney-pacommwct-2017.