Court Opinion

ID: 9698151
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 19:43:22.910564+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:20:38.855476
License: Public Domain

FRIEDMAN, Judge,
dissenting.
As the majority correctly points out, under section 314 of The Pennsylvania Workmen’s Compensation Act (Act), Act of June 2, 1915, P.L. 736, as amended, 77 P.S. § 651, an employer may “at any time” request that the Board order further examination of the claimant, where the Board deems the requested examination to be “reasonable and necessary.” Here, the majority agrees that Employer met its burden under section 314 of the Act by establishing that the request for re-examination was reasonable and necessary where Employer learned that Claimant was alleging that his physical condition had worsened and he was unable to work. However, I must respectfully disagree with the majority. Even assuming that these allegations would make Employer’s request reasonable and necessary, I see no indication that Claimant ever made such assertions. . Furthermore, in his findings, the referee never mentions Claimant’s inability to work.1
*577Employer claims to have derived this “information” regarding Claimant’s worsened condition from a statement made by Claimant to an employee of the vocational service. However, in that statement, Claimant, who previously had indicated that he would like to return to work, simply told the employee that he had not returned. The content of this conversation was reaffirmed at the hearing. Although Employer saw this limited exchange as a basis to request a second medical examination, I have great difficulty in equating Claimant’s simple declaration that he did not return to work to an assertion that he was unable to return to work due to a worsening of his physical condition. Because it appears that Employer based his petition for physical examination on nothing more than this language, I do not believe that Employer satisfied its burden under section 314 of the Act and, accordingly, I would reverse.

. Indeed, the referee concluded that Employer established the reasonableness of its request "in that Employer was litigating a Termination Petition in which Claimant’s current ability to return to work is in dispute.” (R.R. at 32a.) I would note that a claimant’s ability to return to work is always at issue in termination cases; thus, it appears the referee would make mere involvement in termination proceedings reasonable grounds to request a claimant to submit to additional medical examinations. I must take issue with this conclusion because I feel it would legitimize the use of petitions for physical examination to collect evidence in support of pending termination petitions. To permit an employer to require a physical examination after the filing of a termination petition and then to utilize the findings of that report to bolster *577what otherwise might be weak proof would give meaning to “reasonable and necessary” in section 314 which I do not believe the legislature intended.