Court Opinion

ID: 9756874
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 22:06:00.446072+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:28:32.365999
License: Public Domain

McGINLEY, Judge,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent. It is true that in Eugenie we held that the meaning of “reasonable” in sections 440 and 442 was not to be interpreted as identical for purposes of reliance on our cases holding that a twenty percent fee arrangement is per se reasonable. However, we must be cognizant of the unusual situation presented in Eugenie. In that case, the. referee’s award was for the cost of the claimant’s care in a special facility for the rest of his life, made necessary by brain damage suffered in a fall at work. Due to the then-current cost of care at the facility, and the foreseeable rise in cost in the future, this Court was swayed by the fact that Claimant’s twenty percent fee agreement with his attorney would produce an attorney’s fee of $11,000 per year to begin, with commensurate increase as the cost of care at the facility rose. The referee found that the contest was not a reasonable one, and awarded attorney’s fees of twenty percent. The Board reversed, finding that attorney’s fees in such a large amount were not reasonable, as mandated by Section 440. In accordance with our decision in Wommer v. Workmen’s Compensation Appeal Board (Lycoming County), 84 Pa.Commonwealth Ct. 275, 479 A.2d 661 (1984), we held that the Board’s decision should be remanded, as the Board had not made specific findings on the work performed by the attorney, and the record did not reflect the amount and difficulty of the work performed.
*203I believe that Section 440 does not contemplate that the injured claimant should be forced to mount a defense against a baseless challenge with funds from his own pocket. In the absence of a truly unusual result, the purpose of the Act is best served when a Section 440 award is matched to a Claimant’s reasonable fee agreement, and I believe that a twenty percent attorney’s fee arrangement is reasonable per se.