Opinion
Argued September 15, 1978
November 6, 1978.
Workmen's compensation — Petition to terminate agreement or award — Causation — Burden of proof.
1. An employer filing a petition to terminate a workmen's compensation agreement or award has the burden of proving that the medical condition disabling the employe has no causal relationship with the compensable injury which was the basis for the agreement or award. [407]
Argued September 15, 1978, before Judges MENCER, BLATT and MacPHAIL, sitting as a panel of three.
Appeal, No. 1345 C.D. 1977, from the Order of the Workmen's Compensation Appeal Board in case of Paul Shettel v. Motor Truck Owners Conference, Inc., No. A-72515.
Petition with the Department of Labor and Industry to terminate workmen's compensation agreement. Petition dismissed. Petitioner appealed to the Workmen's Compensation Appeal Board. Dismissal order affirmed as modified. Petitioner appealed to the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania. Held: Affirmed.
Philip D. Freedman, with him Caldwell, Clouser Kearns, for petitioner.
Bruce D. Foreman, with him Melman, Gekas, Nicholas and Lieberman, and James N. Diefenderfer, for respondents.
Motor Truck Owners Conference, Inc., (employer) is appealing from a decision of the Workmen's Compensation Appeal Board (Board).
On May 30, 1973, Paul Shettel (claimant) was injured in the course of his employment when he fell from a ladder as he was unloading a truck and a portable sewing machine landed on his chest. A notice of compensation payable was executed by the employer indicating the nature of the injury as "torn ligaments of back," and the employer later filed a petition for termination alleging that the claimant had recovered from the back injury. The referee found, however, that the claimant continued to be totally disabled, noting that competent medical testimony indicated that the claimant, in addition to the torn ligaments of the back, suffered from a hiatal hernia and an ileocecal valve syndrome as a result of the accident. The referee dismissed the petition, and on appeal the Board affirmed.
The employer argues here that the claimant has not met the burden of showing a causal connection between the hernia and ileocecal valve syndrome and the accident. At oral argument before this Court, however, the employer's counsel conceded that, if the burden of proof is on the employer, in this case, the employer cannot prevail in this appeal. We agree. And we believe that the burden was on the employer here to show lack of causal connection. See McGee v. L. G. Grammes Son, Inc., 477 Pa. 143, 383 A.2d 864 (1978); Workmen's Compensation Appeal Board v. Pennsylvania Hospital, 22 Pa. Commw. 168, 348 A.2d 159 (1975).
We therefore affirm the decision of the Workmen's Compensation Appeal Board.
ORDER
AND NOW, this 6th day of November, 1978, the order of the Workmen's Compensation Appeal Board in the above-captioned matter is affirmed, and judgment is entered in favor of Paul Shettel and against Motor Truck Owners Conference, Inc., denying its petition for termination and ordering that it resume payment of benefits to the claimant at the rate of $100.00 per week for so long as the claimant's disability shall exist. It is further ordered that Motor Truck Owners Conference pay the following medical and hospital expenses incurred by the claimant as a result of his injury of May 30, 1973:
Dr. Galen E. Keeney .................. $ 6.00 Riverside Hospital ................... $ 35.50 Dr. S. M. Gamber ..................... $ 743.00 Dr. John R. Groh ..................... $ 25.00 Milton S. Hershey Medical Center ..... $ 86.00 A. Z. Ritzman Associates, Inc. ....... $ 109.00 Dr. Michael M. Gedulig ............... $ 305.00 Polyclinic Hospital .................. $ 10.00 Harrisburg Hospital .................. $ 58.75 Dr. John J. Bennett .................. $ 35.00 Keystone Artificial Limb and Orthopedic Co. ....................... $ 43.00 Drs. Thorsen and Mackenzie ........... $ 240.00 Drs. Waltz and Bixler ................ $ 30.00 York Hospital ........................ $2101.05 Dr. William H. Pfeffer ............... $ 82.50 Drs. Hoover and Menchy ............... $ 105.00 Dr. Earl L. Bernstine ................ $ 191.00 Paul Shettel, Claimant ............... $ 37.60
Miscellaneous Prescriptions
Accrued compensation shall bear the statutory interest rate of ten percent. It is also further ordered that the claimant submit to a medical examination as directed by the Workmen's Compensation Appeal Board.