Court Opinion

ID: 9758395
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 23:27:03.010612+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:28:50.731500
License: Public Domain

DISSENTING OPINION BY Judge
FRIEDMAN.
I respectfully dissent. The majority holds that, for a claimant to prove that he is making a good faith effort to seek employment after retiring on a disability pension solely to maintain his health insurance and benefits, (see WCJ’s Findings of Fact, No. 12), the claimant must show that he or she “applied or sent applications for employment or other indicia that he [or she] was actively applying for employment.” (Majority op. at 911) (emphasis added). Thus, the majority concludes that the credible testimony of Robert Hensal (Claimant) regarding his registration with Career Link, his efforts to acquire information about a civil service test and his searching for available jobs on various internet web sites is insufficient, as a matter of law, to prove that he is making a good faith effort to seek employment. I cannot agree.
Searching for a job involves multiple steps: (1) finding a suitable and available job; (2) applying for that job; (3) obtaining an interview for that job; and (4) being offered that job. The majority has decided that the process of finding a suitable and available job, the first step in obtaining employment, does not constitute a good faith effort to seek employment as a matter of law. It is true that looking for suitable and available jobs is a different activity than filling out job applications, but both are activities aimed at securing employment. Indeed, unless a claimant looks in good faith for suitable and available jobs, the claimant cannot perform the subsequent acts of applying for and obtaining a job.
Moreover, in Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority v. Workmen’s Compensation Appeal Board (Henderson), 543 Pa. 74, 79, 669 A.2d 911, 913 (1995) (emphasis added), our supreme court stated that, in order for a claimant to establish an entitlement to benefits after voluntarily removing himself from the labor force by retiring, the claimant must show that “circumstances subsequently change[d] in fact,” i.e., that, as a matter of fact, he is seeking employment. In *912other words, whether a claimant is exercising good faith in seeking employment is a question of fact, not law.1 See Evans v. Penn Mutual Life Insurance Company, 322 Pa. 547, 186 A. 133 (1936) (stating that, ordinarily, good faith is a question of fact).
The fact finder in this case is the workers’ compensation judge (WCJ), and the WCJ found credible Claimant’s testimony that he is seeking employment and that he has not removed himself from the workforce. Because the question of good faith is for the fact finder and because the fact finder here believed Claimant, I would affirm.2
Judge SMITH-RIBNER joins in this dissent.

. Thus, in Maroski v. Workers' Compensation-Appeal Board (Bethlehem Steel Corporation), 725 A.2d 1260 (Pa.Cmwlth.), appeal denied, 560 Pa. 690, 742 A.2d 678 (1999), this court stated that we must examine the findings and evidence to determine whether a claimant is seeking employment after retirement.

. The majority states that "surfing” the web for jobs is "window shopping.” (Majority op. at 911.) Although some people use the internet exclusively for "shopping,” others actually find available jobs through the internet.