Court Opinion

ID: 9751427
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 16:26:10.87023+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:26:46.105685
License: Public Domain

DISSENTING OPINION BY
Judge PELLEGRINI.
I respectfully dissent because the statute of repose imposed by Section 413 of the Workers’ Compensation Act (Act)1 does not apply as it was filed within “three years after the date of the most recent payment of compensation made prior to the filing of such petition ...”
Claimant suffered a back injury on the job in January 1989 while working as a road maintenance/truck driver/laborer for his Employer, East Goshen Township. He broke his back, had surgery and was off work for seven months. He received total disability benefits pursuant to a notice of compensation payable until September 1989 when he returned to his pre-injury job without a loss of earnings and his benefits were suspended. On May 19, 2003, Claimant and Employer entered into a supplemental agreement reinstating Claimant’s total disability benefits for the period of February 24, 2003, to March 17, 2003. They were again reinstated from June 17, 2005, to August 29, 2005, but were suspended by notice of suspension dated August 29, 2005. Claimant and Employer signed another supplemental agreement on July 31, 2007, reinstating Claimant’s total disability benefits as of June 20, 2007, going forward. Total disability benefits continued to be paid until the parties signed a supplemental agreement dated January 7, 2008, modifying the benefits from total disability to partial disability at a rate of $318.52 per week effective November 28, 2007, and “if the future period of disability is uncertain, then to continue at said rate until further terminated by supplemental agreement, final receipt, or *115order of a Workers’ Compensation Judge, or the Workers’ Compensation Appeal Board.” (Reproduced Record at 8a-9a.) When Claimant returned to work on November 28, 2007, he went to work for a different employer — Point to Point Transportation, and did so in a light-duty capacity. He continued working for that employer until January 24, 2008, when he no longer felt he was physically capable of performing the light-duty work due to continued back pain.
On September 26, 2008, Claimant filed a reinstatement petition seeking to reinstate his total disability benefits effective January 2, 2008, because his injury caused a decrease in earning power as he no longer was working in a light-duty job. He later filed a penalty petition alleging that his first Employer violated the Act by ceasing payment of the partial disability benefits due him under the January 7, 2008 supplemental agreement on January 24, 2009. The Workers’ Compensation Judge (WCJ) granted Claimant’s petition and determined that Employer was equitably es-topped from raising a statute of repose defense because it had lulled Claimant into believing that his compensation rights were fully protected by executing various supplemental agreements. The Board reversed the WCJ’s decision because Claimant’s right to compensation had already been extinguished by the expiration of the statute of repose found in Section 413 of the Act by the time Employer executed the supplemental agreements.
On appeal, Claimant contends that Employer should be equitably estopped from raising a statute of repose defense and that his reinstatement petition is not time-barred by the statute of repose because it was filed within three years of the last payment of compensation. He also argues that he is entitled to penalties because Employer unilaterally ceased making partial disability payments to him in violation of the Act. The majority affirms the Board, based, among other reasons, on this Court’s decision in Lopresti v. Workers’ Compensation Appeal Board (Taylor Wharton Company), 692 A.2d 629 (Pa.Cmwlth.1997). Because the facts of this case are different from Lopresti, I respectfully dissent.
In Lopresti, the claimant was injured in 1976 and filed a reinstatement petition in November 1978 alleging a recurrence of his work-related injury. In an order dated March 21,1983, the WCJ (then referred to as a “referee”) ordered that the claimant was to receive benefits from November 1978 until February 1981 at which time they were suspended because he had returned to work with no loss of earnings. The Board affirmed, and no one appealed that decision to this Court. The employer actually paid the claimant benefits on September 29,1983. The claimant filed another reinstatement petition in October 1984, but by order dated February 24, 1989, the referee denied the petition and terminated the employer’s liability. The Board affirmed, and the claimant appealed to this Court. On June 21, 1991, we affirmed the suspension of the claimant’s benefits. The claimant filed another reinstatement petition in February 1991 alleging a change in his physical condition as of February Í989. The employer alleged that it was time-barred because his benefits were suspended in February 1981, and the claimant did not file his reinstatement petition until February 1991, which was beyond the 500 weeks allowed by the statute of repose in Section 413 of the Act. The referee agreed and dismissed his petition. The Board affirmed and the claimant appealed to this Court arguing that the employer had withheld benefits until September 1983 and the 500-week statute of repose should not have begun to run until that date. On appeal, we affirmed the Board noting that *116the 500-week statute of repose began to run from the effective date of the WCJ’s order. We noted that the 500-week statute of repose began to run from the effective date of the WCJ’s order, not the date of the order in which the WCJ suspended the claimant’s benefits. “In other words, if a WCJ orders a retroactive suspension of a claimant’s benefits as of a particular date, then the 500-week statute of repose begins to run as of that date, regardless of whether the claimant received compensation beyond that time.” Lopresti, 692 A.2d at 631-632 n. 5.
However, in this case, unlike in Lopresti, the statute of repose is inapplicable because the supplemental agreement dated January 7, 2008, was never “terminated by supplemental agreement, final receipt, or order of a Workers’ Compensation Judge, or the Workers’ Compensation Appeal Board,” and Employer is still required to pay Claimant modified benefits which it unilaterally stopped paying. Therefore, his reinstatement petition was filed within 500 weeks of the date of the suspension of his total disability payments which was the August 29, 2005 suspension agreement when he returned to work and his benefits were suspended. Moreover, not only is that January 7, 2008 supplemental agreement still valid, but contrary to the majority opinion’s statement that “Claimant did not receive compensation after [September 8, 1989],” (majority opinion at 111), Employer last paid Claimant on June 20, 2007, pursuant to the supplemental agreement dated July 31, 2007. Because Claimant’s reinstatement petition was filed within 500 weeks of his suspension of benefits and within three years of his last payment, I would reverse the Board.
Accordingly, I respectfully dissent.

. Act of June 2, 1915, P.L. 736, as amended, 77 P.S. § 772. Pursuant to that provision, a claimant may file a petition to reinstate workers’ compensation benefits if he or she does so within three years after the date of the last compensation benefit payment. Section 413 of the Act provides:
A workers’ compensation judge designated by the department may, at any time, modify, reinstate, suspend or terminate a notice of compensation payable, an original or supplemental agreement or award of the department or its referee ... Provided, that ... no notice of compensation payable, agreement or award shall be reviewed, or modified, or reinstated, unless a petition is filed with the department within three years after the date of the most recent payment of compensation made prior to the filing of such petition ...
(Emphasis added.) Section 413 of the Act imposes a statute of repose where a reinstatement petition must be filed within three years after the date of the most recent payment. Section 306(b) of the Act, 77 P.S. § 512(1), provides the time period within which partial disability is payable and, therefore, within which a claimant must file a petition for reinstatement, that is, five hundred weeks.