Court Opinion

ID: 9697583
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 19:22:16.385709+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:33:06.993559
License: Public Domain

CONCURRING OPINION BY
JUDGE PELLEGRINI.
I concur in the result reached by the majority that a Workers’ Compensation Judge (WCJ) has the authority to determine the paternity of a child. I write separately because I believe that if one of the parties requests DNA testing of a party or non-party to determine paternity, the WCJ has the authority to so order.
In this case, Daniel R. Boyle (Decedent) was killed in the course and scope of his employment. Patricia Rossa (Rossa), who alleged Decedent was her former lover, filed a fatal claim petition on behalf of her daughter, Ashley Rossa (Claimant), whom she claimed was the product of her relationship with the Decedent. In 1995, the WCJ indefinitely postponed the case to allow the parties the opportunity to file a paternity claim in the trial court because paternity had not been established prior to Decedent’s death. However, in 1999, Claimant’s counsel requested the case be removed from the inactive status even though paternity was never determined. While Rossa requested that Decedent’s father submit to DNA testing, she never requested that the WCJ order him to undergo such a test. Rossa and multiple family members provided testimony before the WCJ that Claimant was Decedent’s daughter. Decedent’s father testified to the contrary and prior to the hearing, refused Rossa’s request to submit to DNA testing. Finding Rossa and her family’s testimony credible, the WCJ granted the fatal claim petition and the City of Philadelphia, Decedent’s employer, appealed to the Board. The Board vacated the WCJ’s decision after concluding that the WCJ did not have jurisdiction to determine an issue of paternity and Claimant filed an appeal with this Court.
The majority agrees with Claimant that the WCJ has jurisdiction to determine issues of paternity and reverses the Board. It does so stating that 1) there is no restriction on the WCJ’s power to make such a determination, 2) under Pennsylvania case law, WCJs have previously made determinations regarding survivors and their relationship to the decedent at the time of death, and 3) other jurisdictions hold the workers’ compensation authority has the power to determine paternity of an illegitimate child for the limited purpose of establishing entitlement to workers’ compensation benefits. While I agree with the majority that the WCJ has jurisdiction to determine issues of paternity, I write separately because if DNA testing has been requested by one of the parties, the WCJ has the authority to order a party to the action or even a non-party, as here, to submit to such testing to aid in determining paternity. If not requested, then con-*928elusive evidence may not be available to the WCJ to determine paternity.
In Strayer v. Ryan, 725 A.2d 785 (Pa.Super.1999), the Superior Court, noting that DNA paternity testing had pinpoint accuracy, held that DNA testing was proper where a father wanted to prove his paternity so as to engage in a relationship with the child and the facts did not give rise to any countervailing presumption of paternity, DNA testing to establish paternity should be ordered. Additionally, in Wawrykow v. Simonich, 438 Pa.Super. 340, 652 A.2d 843 (1994), the Superior Court found there was reasonable cause for exhumation that was sought for purposes of DNA testing to determine the paternity of a child on whose behalf a claim was made against the decedent’s estate.
Because of the relative newness of DNA testing, we have never addressed whether a WCJ can order DNA testing either by requiring a relative of the deceased to submit to DNA testing or exhuming the body to obtain the requisite DNA sample for comparison under Section 437 of the Workers’ Compensation Act (Act),1 which gives the WCJ the power to subpoena the “attendance of witnesses.” Whether the power to subpoena the “attendance of witnesses” in the workers’ compensation arena includes requesting a party to submit to DNA testing has not yet been decided in Pennsylvania.2 However, at least one other state has addressed that issue and has determined that a trial court has the power to require a non-party to submit to DNA testing. In Estate of Peter Rogers, Sr., Deceased, 245 N.J.Super. 39, 583 A.2d 782, 784 (1990), the Court held that based on the power of a court to order the attendance of witnesses, it could order a non-party to provide a DNA sample, stating:
A trial court is not helpless in dealing with a nonparty witness who refuses to submit to blood or genetic testing. Although the Parentage Act [as in Pennsylvania] subjects only parties to a court order compelling such testing, a court has inherent power to order anyone within its jurisdiction to submit to such tests when they are needed to adjudicate a genuine issue before it. “It is well settled that a court possesses the inherent power to call witnesses on its *929own initiative in the quest for truth.” (Citations omitted.) If a court has the inherent power to require a nonparty to give evidence in the form of testimony in the quest for the truth, it also has the inherent power to require a nonparty to give evidence in the form of a blood sample in the quest for the truth.
Based on the reasoning in Rogers, I believe the authority contained in 77 P.S. § 992 to compel the attendance of witnesses provides the WCJ with the authority to order DNA testing of either a party or non-party to the proceeding.
Because the employer failed to ask a non-party to submit to DNA testing, the only evidence the WCJ could rely upon was the testimony provided, including the non-party evidence presented by Decedent’s father. Because that testimony constituted substantial evidence, the WCJ did not err in making a determination as to the paternity of Rossa’s child. Because we are constrained to rely solely on the testimony presented, I concur in the result.

. Act of June 2, 1915, P.L. 736, as amended, 77 P.S. § 992. That section provides:
The secretary, any referee, and any member of the board shall have the power to issue subpoenas to require the attendance of witnesses and/or the production of books, documents, and paper pertinent to any hearing. Any witness who refuses to obey such summons or subpoenas, or who refuses to be sworn or affirmed to testify, or who is guilty of any contempt after notice to appear, may be punished as for contempt of court, and, for this purpose, an application may be made to any court of common pleas within whose territorial jurisdiction the offense was committed, for which purpose such court is hereby given jurisdiction. (Emphasis added.)

. While Pennsylvania does allow a trial court to order DNA testing upon the request of any party to a civil or criminal action or upon its own initiative pursuant to 23 Pa.C.S. § 5104(c), that statute does not address the issue of a non-party. 23 Pa.C.S. § 5103(c) provides:
In any matter subject to this section in which paternity, parentage or identity of a child is a relevant fact, the court, upon its own initiative or upon suggestion made by or on behalf of any person whose blood is involved, may or, upon motion of any party to the action made at a time so as not to delay the proceedings unduly, shall order the mother, child and alleged father to submit to blood tests. If any party refuses to submit to the tests, the court may resolve the question of paternity, parentage or identity of a child against the party or enforce its order if the rights of others and the interests of justice so require.