Court Opinion

ID: 9637096
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 14:56:37.439789+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:09:53.313122
License: Public Domain

DISSENTING OPINION BY
Judge PELLEGRINI.
Because a Notice of Compensation Payable (NCP) cannot be amended in a termination proceeding to add injuries not listed in the NCP unless Petition for Review pursuant to Section 413(a) of the Act is filed, I respectfully dissent.
To defend against Employer’s termination petition alleging that he had fully recovered from a lumbar strain/sprain, the injury listed on the NCP, Claimant offered medical expert testimony that he had a work-related herniated lumbar disc. No separate petition to amend the NCP was filed. Accepting Claimant’s medical expert’s testimony, the Workers’ Compensation Judge (WCJ) denied Employer’s termination petition and amended the NCP to include the herniated disc. The Board denied Employer’s appeal, finding that the WCJ properly amended the NCP and denied the termination petition because Employer failed to offer any evidence that Claimant had recovered from his herniated lumbar disc.
In this appeal, Employer, among other things, contends that the WCJ could not amend the NCP in a termination petition even if he found the NCP materially incorrect. To do so, it argues that Claimant would have been required to file a separate petition to amend the NCP. The majority rejects Employer’s argument because Sec*350tion 413(a) of the Workers’ Compensation Act1 provides, in pertinent part:
A workers’ compensation judge may, at any time, review and modify or set aside a notice of compensation payable ... or upon petition filed by either party with the department, or in the course of the proceedings under any petition pending before such workers’ compensation judge, if it be proved that such notice of compensation payable or agreement was in any material respect incorrect. (77 P.S. § 771.)
A workers’ compensation judge designated by the department may, at any time, modify, reinstate, suspend, or terminate a notice of compensation payable ... upon petition filed by either party with the department, upon proof that the disability of an injured employe has increased, decreased, recurred, or has temporarily or finally ceased.... Such modification, reinstatement, suspension, or termination shall be made as of the date upon which it is shown that the disability of the injured employe has increased, decreased, recurred, or has temporarily or finally ceased ... (77 P.S. § 772.)
Under the majority’s interpretation of this provision, to amend an NCP, a claimant does not need to file a separate petition, but can do so in any pending petition including, as here, a termination petition. Because the majority’s holding is directly contrary to. our Supreme Court’s decision in Jeanes Hospital v. Workers’ Compensation Appeal Board (Hass), 582 Pa. 405, 872 A.2d 159 (2005), I respectfully dissent.
In Jeanes Hospital, our Supreme Court set forth what a claimant must do to amend an NCP, stating:
When an NCP description of injury does not correctly reflect the actual injury or enumerate all of the injuries sustained in a work-related incident, Section 413(a) sets forth the procedure by which the NCP is modified. Pursuant to Section 413(a), a claimant must file a Petition to Review Notice of Compensation Payable, which is treated like a claim petition. As in a claim petition, the claimant has the burden of proving all elements to support the claim for benefits. In the instant matter, Appellant filed a Petition to Review Notice of Compensation Payable and sustained her burden of demonstrating a material misstatement of fact.
See also Commercial Credit Claims v. Workmen’s Compensation Appeal Board (Lancaster), 556 Pa. 325, 728 A.2d 902 (1999).
Accordingly, because Claimant did not file a petition to amend the NCP, I respectfully dissent.

. Act of June 2, 1915, P.L. 736, as amended, 77 P.S.§§ 771-772.