Court Opinion

ID: 9704794
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 00:46:54.551076+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:22:05.576841
License: Public Domain

TAMILIA, Judge,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent to the disposition by the majority which affirms the trial court in requiring the appellant to submit to a physical examination pursuant to the Pennsylvania Motor Vehicle Financial Responsibility Act (MVFR). I do not believe the requirement of “good cause” as enunciated by State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co. v. Allen, 375 Pa.Super. 319, 544 A.2d 491 (1988) (Wieand, J., dissenting), and State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co. v. Zachary, 370 Pa.Super. 386, 536 A.2d 800 (1987), have been met. The majority would ignore the test clearly adopted in Zachary and followed in Allen. As in those two cases, State Farm, without further inquiry of the doctor treating appellant as to her continued need for treatment, or by means of interrogatories or depositions attempting to ascertain her condition, filed its motion for medical examination based on an early estimate of the time required for treatment. This does not carry the burden of establishing “good cause” for *626an intrusive medical examination which is required by 75 Pa.C.S. § 1796, that is, “[t]he order may only be made upon motion for good cause shown.”
In this case, the author of the majority, Judge Wieand, would adopt his view espoused in a dissent in Allen, supra, for a less stringent requirement for a showing of good cause. Nowhere in the majority is there an analysis of the required steps, in relation to the facts of this case, as established in Zachary and Allen, for a showing of good cause. Instead, the majority relies primarily on judicial discretion, without requiring: (1) that the proofs submitted in support of the claim are inadequate, i.e., that the information supplied by the claimant in support of his or her claim does not eliminate reasonable doubt as to the validity of the claim; (2) that the proposed examination will substantially assist the insurer in evaluating the claim; and (3) that the amount of the claim justifies a court order compelling the claimant to submit to a physical examination.
Admittedly, the requirements are stringent, but two panels of this Court have determined that a “good cause” showing must be established with sufficient specificity to avoid intrusiveness of a medical examination in a spurious manner. Mere continued need of treatment beyond the preliminary estimate of the time required for treatment is not a sufficient showing. Zachary and Allen make it explicitly clear how the burden is to be met for a good cause showing.1 In failing to do anything towards meeting this burden, beyond filing its motion alleging generalities, State Farm has failed to meet the test. I would vacate the Order for medical examination and remand for whatever further proceedings are necessary to comply with a good cause showing.

. While the majority Opinion, in its final sentence (At p. 367), states the trial court determined that the test for "good cause” had been met as defined in Zachary and Allen, declaring it to be so does not make it so, when, in fact, judicial discretion is substituted for the three-part test required by those cases.