Turbedsky v. Commonwealth

442 A.2d 849, 65 Pa. Commw. 363, 1982 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 1146
CourtCommonwealth Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedMarch 17, 1982
DocketAppeal, No. 3131 C.D. 1980
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 442 A.2d 849 (Turbedsky v. Commonwealth) 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
Turbedsky v. Commonwealth, 442 A.2d 849, 65 Pa. Commw. 363, 1982 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 1146 (Pa. Ct. App. 1982).

Opinion

Opinion by

Judge Rogers,

The issue here is whether the Bureau of Vocational Rehabilitation of the Department of Labor and Industry (BVR) is required by the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended, 29 U.S.C. §701 et seq. (1973) and federal regulations adopted thereunder, to provide full-time attendant care to the petitioner, Mark J. Turbedsky, who has been unconditionally accepted in BVR’s vocational rehabilitation program and who contends and has introduced essentially unrefuted evidence that full-time attendant care will be reasonably expected to benefit him in terms of employability.

The petitioner is a respirator dependent quadriplegic as a result of an accident. He requires full-time attention of someone to monitor a mechanical ventilation system on which his life depends and to attend to his personal and other needs. For this reason he is now a resident at Muhlenberg Medical Center when not at his college classes with an attendant.

Prior to the accident which resulted in his injuries, the petitioner was a college student. He has since resumed his studies at Allentown College of St. Francis deSales, where he is engaged in two courses a semester. The costs of his education, including tuition, books, transportation and attendant care during his trips to and from school and while attending classes have been, and are now, provided by BVR. The petitioner is convinced that if he were able to live other than in an institution as he is now required because he does not have full-time attendant care, he could improve his progress in his college studies and consequently his employability. ■

Following hearings on Turbedsky’s requests for unconditional (rather than his then conditional) acceptance in BVR’s program and for full-time attendant care, the Secretary of the Department of Labor and Industry, acting as chairman of the State Board of [366]*366Vocational Rehabilitation, adopted the decision and order of the hearing examiner, BVR Director John Hagen, which accepted the petitioner unconditionally into BVR’s vocational rehabilitation program but refused his request for full-time attendant care.

The petitioner contends that he established at the BVR hearing that the provision of a full-time attendant would improve his progress at college which would in turn enhance his employability and BVR is hence required by the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, federal regulations adopted thereunder, and by Pennsylvania’s state plan as established pursuant to the federal-act to provide him with full-time attendant care.

BVR counters with the contentions: (1) that BVR has no power to provide full-time attendant care because such service is not an authorized service under Title I or the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, entitled “Vocational Rehabilitation Services,” but that this service is only authorized by Title VII of the Act, entitled “Comprehensive Services for Independent Living,” a program in which the State of Pennsylvania has chosen not to participate; (2) that even if BVR were empowered to provide full-time attendant care as a vocational rehabilitation service, the petitioner has not shown that the provision of a full-time attendant would aid him in terms of employability, as required by the Act; and (3) that conceding for argument’s sake that BVR is empowered to provide this service as a vocational rehabilitation service, and that such service would aid the petitioner in terms of employability, BVR has discretion in the allocation of its funds and may refuse the petitioner full-time attendant care simply to provide other services to other people. We reject BVR’s contentions and, accepting the petitioner’s, we reverse the Secretary’s order refusing the petitioner’s request for full-time attendant care while he pursues his college education. With respect to BVR’s con[367]*367tention that full-time attendant care is not available under Title I, we first note that at 29 TJ.S.C. §723, Congress has pertinently provided:

(a) Individual services. Vocational rehabilitation services under this act are any goods or services necessary to render a handicapped individual employable, including, but not limited, to, the following;
(1) Evaluation of rehabilitation potential.
(2) Counseling, guidance, referral and placement services___
(3) Vocational and other training services
■ (4) Physical and mental restoration services ...
(5) Maintenance, not exceeding the estimated cost of subsistence, during rehabilitation.
(6) Interpreter services ...
(7) Recruitment' and training services . . .
(8) Rehabilitation teaching services and orientation and mobility services for the blind;
(9) Occupational licenses, tools ...
(10) Transportation...
(11) Telecommunications, sensory and oth-' er technological aids and devices.
(Emphasis added.)

Not only does the Act authorize the provision of any service necessary to render the handicapped person employable, it specifically allows the provision of maintenance during rehabilitation. “Maintenance” is defined by regulation as

. . . payments, not exceeding the estimated cost of subsistence and provided at any time from the date of initiation of vocational rehabilitation [368]*368services through the provision of post-employment services, to cover a handicapped individual’s basic living expenses, such as food, shelter, clothing and other subsistence expenses necessary to derive the full benefit of other vocational rehabilitation services being provided in order to achieve such individual’s vocational rehabilitation objective or to enable an extended evaluation of such individual’s rehabilitation potential.

45 C.F.R. §1361.1 (m) (emphasis added). That maintenance includes expenses necessary to derive the full benefit of other vocational services provided is the central point of Turbedsky’s thesis. His proofs demonstrated that full-time attendant care was necessary in order that he might derive the full benefit of the college education being provided him as a vocational rehabilitation service.

BVR’s contention that full-time attendant care cannot be provided this Pennsylvanian accepted for its Title I vocational program because the State has chosen not to participate in Title VII’s independent living program is wholly unpersuasive. Nothing in the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 prohibits the provision of allowable vocational rehabilitation services to one entitled to them by the statute and regulation under Title I because the same services might be provided under Title VII. As we have seen, one in the Title I program is entitled to maintenance defined as any services necessary to provide full benefit of the vocational rehabilitation services being rendered. In this case, these according to the undisputed record include full-time attendant care.

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Related

Miller v. Ohio Rehabilitation Services Commission
621 N.E.2d 437 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 1993)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
442 A.2d 849, 65 Pa. Commw. 363, 1982 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 1146, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/turbedsky-v-commonwealth-pacommwct-1982.