Opinion ID: 1344051
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: employer reimbursement of certain claimant expenses

Text: Finally, the petitioners ask us to direct the Commissioner to order employers to pay any claimant's expenses for medical examinations or reports, and any witness costs, incurred as a result of unsuccessful protests by employers. The petitioners base their claim upon W.Va.Code, 23-5-1 [1973], the applicable part of which provides: After protest by the employer only to any finding or determination of the Commissioner made on or after July one, one thousand nine hundred seventy-one, and the employer does not prevail in its protest and, in the event the claimant is required to attend a hearing by subpoena or agreement of counsel or at the express direction of the commissioner, then such claimant in addition to reasonable traveling and other expenses shall be reimbursed for loss of wages incurred by him in attending such hearing. The petitioners assert that the Commissioner operates the West Virginia Compensation Fund under the following informal policy: After a Commissioner's award to a claimant, based upon the medical evidence of the Commissioner's medical reports, if there is an employer protest accompanied by medical evidence from the employer and only one medical report or no additional evidence from the claimant, the employer wins virtually automatically. (Affidavit in Support of Petition for Writ of Mandamus, p. 4). The Commissioner has emphatically denied this allegation and the petitioners have not seen fit to submit any evidence of such a course of conduct to this court. Consequently, we do not accept the petitioners' assertion that, because of the policies of the Commissioner, a protest by an employer accompanied by the employer's medical evidence necessarily forces the claimant to secure new and cumulative medical testimony. We are not persuaded, therefore, that the statute requires employers to reimburse claimants for all expenses incurred in obtaining medical examinations and introducing medical testimony at protest hearings. We do, however, find that the petitioners make a persuasive case that direct expenses incurred by the claimant in attending a protest hearing ought to be borne by the employer if the claimant prevails. In this regard, the petitioners' assertion that the cost of producing the claimant's doctor or doctors at a hearing merely for the purpose of cross-examination by the employer should be borne by the employer is well taken. The adjudication of workers' compensation claims is not governed by the formal rules of evidence. Ordinarily the cross-examination of expert witnesses does little to illuminate the issues that are to be decided by the Commissioner, the Appeal Board, and, finally, this court. The legislature must have intended some meaning for the words, and other expenses, found in the part of Code 23-5-1 [1973] quoted above, and we conclude that it was the legislative intent to reimburse the claimant for his out-of-pocket expenses directly related to his being required to attend a hearing as a result of an employer protest. If, therefore, the claimant is required to produce his own doctors so that they may be cross-examined by the employer, and the claimant ultimately prevails, the cost of producing those doctors should be borne by the employer. The employer, of course, can avoid the payment of expert witness fees by permitting claimants' doctors' reports to be entered into evidence at the hearings without cross-examination. A routine requirement that all of the claimant's doctors be present at a protest hearing simply to have their testimony introduced into evidence places an enormous and unnecessary financial burden on a claimant and wastes the time of medical professionals. Such a burden is not contemplated by W.Va.Code 23-5-1 [1973]. If, however, the claimant wishes to produce his doctors for his own purposes, notwithstanding the employer's willingness to stipulate their written testimony into the record, then the claimant is still responsible for paying their fees. We hold, therefore, that the petitioners are not entitled to mandamus relief insofar as they seek reimbursement for all expenses incurred in securing additional medical evidence to meet the employer's protest, but we do award mandamus relief that requires the Commissioner to provide, by appropriate rules and regulations, for the reimbursement of a claimant, should he prevail, for any witness fees incurred by the claimant exclusively for the purpose of making his witnesses available to his employer for cross-examination. Accordingly, for the reasons set forth above, the writ of mandamus for which the petitioners pray is granted in part and refused in part and the writ of mandamus as moulded is awarded. Writ denied in part and awarded in part.