Opinion
48439 Record No. 920747
April 16, 1993
Present: All the Justices
There was no error in the ruling of the Court of Appeals that the employer in a workers' compensation case is estopped from invoking the statute of limitations, and that judgment is affirmed.
Workers' Compensation Act — Limitation of Actions — Statutes of Limitation — Estoppel — Employment Law
The employer contended that the Court of Appeals erred (1) in holding that the Virginia Workers' Compensation Commission applied an improper standard in determining that the employer was equitably estopped from invoking the statute of limitations, (2) in finding that the case did not present a matter of conflicting evidence or a dispute concerning the Commission's findings of fact, and (3) in refusing to hold that the employee had failed to preserved the estoppel question for appeal purposes. The Court found that the improper standard question presented a matter of significant precedential value under Code Sec. 17-116.07(B) and reviewed all three claims of error.
1. There is no error in the judgment under review and the opinion of the Court of Appeals is adopted as that of the Court and the judgment affirmed.
Appeal from a judgment of the Court of Appeals of Virginia.
Affirmed.
S. Vernon Priddy, III (Mary Louise Kramer; Sarah Y. M. Kirby, on briefs), for appellants.
James J. Vergara, Jr. (Peter B. Baruch, on brief), for appellee.
In this case, the Industrial Commission of Virginia (now the Virginia Workers' Compensation Commission) held that the employer, Allied Fibers Plastics (Allied), was not equitably estopped from asserting the two-year statute of limitations prescribed by Code Sec. 65.1-87 (now Code Sec. 65.2-601) and that the claim of the employee, Ernest J. Cibula, was time-barred. The Court of Appeals reversed, holding that "[t]he evidence in this record leads unerringly to the conclusion that Allied is estopped from invoking the statute of limitations." Cibula v. Allied Fibers Plastics, 14 Va. App. 319, 326, 416 S.E.2d 708, 712 (1992).
In its petition for appeal to this Court, Allied contended that the Court of Appeals erred (1) in holding that the Commission applied an "improper standard" to the question whether Allied was equitably estopped from invoking the statute of limitations, (2) in finding that the case did not present a matter of conflicting evidence or a dispute concerning the Commission's findings of fact, and (3) in refusing to hold that Cibula had failed to preserve the estoppel question for appeal purposes. Determining that the holding of the Court of Appeals regarding an "improper standard" presented a matter of significant precedential value, Code Sec. 17-116.07(B), and that all three of the claims of error should be reviewed, we awarded Allied an appeal.
Upon consideration of Allied's contentions, we find there is no error in the judgment under review. Accordingly, we will adopt the Court of Appeals' opinion as our own and affirm its judgment.
Affirmed.