Court Opinion

ID: 9704997
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 00:54:04.581691+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:22:07.228802
License: Public Domain

LARSEN, Justice,
dissenting.
I dissent. This case is controlled by our decision in Beissel v. W.C.A.B., 502 Pa. 178, 465 A.2d 969 (1983) which *524precludes litigation of liability where the employer has admitted liability in filing a notice of compensation payable. In Beissel, we said:
Just as we have held that the burden is on a petitioner to prove that an employe’s disability has increased or decreased after the filing of a notice of compensation payable, we also hold that a petitioner has the burden of proving that an independent cause of an employe’s disability arose after the filing of a notice of compensation payable if the petitioner is seeking to justify the termination of benefits on the grounds that the employe’s disability is no longer work-related. To hold otherwise would afford the employer an opportunity to litigate that which it has already admitted. This we will not do.
Id., 502 Pa. at p. 185, 465 A.2d at 972. (Emphasis in original.) The majority attempts to distinguish the instant case from Beissel by declaring that “the record does not show that J & L actually investigated claimant’s condition prior to the notice of compensation payable.” (At page 522.) The majority goes on to say “... the record demonstrates that J & L commenced payment of disability benefits prior to its investigation of the cause of claimant’s disability.” (At page 522.)
According to the record in this case, the appellee was injured while on the job on July 18,1977.1 On July 22, 1977, appellee reported to the J & L Health Center where he was examined by Dr. Sherman, the appellant’s examining physician. Appellee’s injury was diagnosed as acute lumbo sacral strain. Appellee was told not to report for work. Shortly thereafter, while at home, the appellee’s back pain became worse and his wife phoned the J & L Health Center for help. Appellee was advised to go to the nearest hospital for treatment. On July 26, 1977, appellee was seen at St. Clair Memorial Hospital where he was treated as an out-patient. On August 1, 1977, appellee was admitted to South *525Side Hospital where he was treated as an in-patient until his discharge on August 18, 1977. On October 10, 1977, notice of compensation payable was issued by the appellant, J & L. In Beissel v. W.C.A.B., supra, we stated:
Since [the employer] had an opportunity to, and in fact did, investigate the cause of [the employee’s] disability, the notice of compensation payable it filed constitutes an admission of its liability to [the employee] for compensation for a lower back injury. [The employer] may not now, under the guise of a termination petition, come into court and use the favorable testimony of Dr. Murray to contradict precisely that which it admitted in its notice of compensation payable, namely, that [the employee’s] disability at the time the notice of compensation payable was filed was related to her 1975 fall at work. [Footnote omitted.]
Id., 502 Pa. at p. 183, 465 A.2d at 971-72.2
In the present case, Dr. Sherman, appellant’s own physician, examined the appellee shortly after his injury. Further, when, through his wife, appellee reported a worsening of his condition, either Dr. Sherman or another physician in the appellant’s health center advised appellee to seek treatment at a hospital. Based upon the knowledge obtained by its doctor’s examination of appellee, appellant issued a notice of compensation payable. Approximately one year later, in October, 1978, the appellant voluntarily paid appellee’s medical bills related to his injury. The appellant J & L had a full and complete opportunity to investigate the cause of appellee’s disability, and did in fact have its own physician examine the appellee. The notice of compensation payable filed by appellant constitutes an admission of appellant’s liability to appellee for compensation for the acute lumbo sacral strain that disabled appellee.
It appears clear that the appellant J & L has not sought to prove that appellee’s disability has decreased or terminat*526ed since July, 1977. Rather the appellant sought to show that appellee’s present disability, which has remained unchanged, was never work-related. We held in Beissel that an employer may not contradict its admission of liability in the notice of compensation payable previously issued. This is precisely what the appellant J & L has sought to do in this case. In Beissel we did not permit the employer to litigate liability which had already been admitted. Likewise, it should not be permitted here. I would affirm the order of the Commonwealth Court.
NIX, C.J., joins in this dissenting opinion.

. Both the notice of compensation payable and the employer's report of occupational injury list July 18, 1977 as the date of injury. Other documents that are part of the record, including a report of Dr. Gerald I. Schor, state that the appellee was injured on July 20, 1977.

. It makes no difference that the appellant-employer in the instant case sought to litigate liability by filing a petition for review instead of a termination petition as was filed by the employer in Beissel.