Court Opinion

ID: 9752992
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 18:49:27.153644+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:27:27.278035
License: Public Domain

CAPPY, Justice,
concurring and dissenting.
I join the majority opinion in their decision for the appellees in Dyll v. Bell Telephone Co. of Pa. I respectfully dissent from the majority decision in Hackenberg v. SEPTA.
*371I believe that the majority has misconstrued the rules of statutory construction in reaching the conclusion that the Motor Vehicle Financial Responsibility Law (MVFRL), 75 Pa.C.S. § 1701 et seq., is intended to treat claimants whose insurance is supplied by an insurance company differently from claimants who receive insurance coverage from a self-insurer. According to the majority interpretation, the claimants whose claims are covered by insurance companies are entitled to uninsured motorist benefits and workmen’s compensation benefits, while the claimants whose claims are covered by a self-insured employer are only entitled to workmen’s compensation benefits.
At issue here is the interplay between Section 303(a) of the Workmen’s Compensation Act, 77 P.S. § 481(a), and § 1735 of the MVFRL. The Workmen’s Compensation Act as amended in December 1974 provides that it shall be the exclusive remedy to employees suffering work related injuries. The MVFRL at § 1735, as effective October 1984, provides that “[t]he coverages required by this subchapter shall not be subject to an exclusion or reduction in amount because of any worker’s compensation benefits payable as a result of the same injury.”
As the majority correctly states, the rules of statutory construction require that when two statutes passed by different General Assemblies are irreconcilable the act passed later in time shall prevail. 1 Pa.C.S.A. § 1936. However, the majority states that we need not apply this rule since Section 303(a) of the Workmen’s Compensation Act is not in conflict with § 1787 of the MVFRL.1 The reasoning here is that § 1787 fails to specifically state that benefits payable to claimants who are covered under the act by self-insurers “shall not” be excluded or reduced by workmen’s compensation benefits. Therefore, the majority reasons that self-insurers are obviously in a different category and the language of the Workmen’s Compensation Act must prevail.
*372I cannot agree with this reasoning. It is true that different standards are set forth in the MVFRL as to self-insurers, such as how one qualifies to be a recognized self-insurer and what limits of liability apply to self-insurers. However, the legislature did not state in the list of special exceptions for self-insurers, that self-insurers were in a class exempt from having to pay both uninsured motorist benefits and workmen’s compensation benefits. Where the specific provisions of a statute do not override the general provisions, the general provisions must prevail. 1 Pa.C.S.A. § 1933.
Because of the tortured logic employed by the majority, I reject their interpretation of these two statutes and assert that the legislature specifically intended claimants under the MVFRL to be entitled to claim both uninsured motorist benefits and workmen’s compensation benefits for the same injury.
In Wagner v. National Indemnification Co., 492 Pa. 154, 422 A.2d 1061 (1980), this Court reviewed the question of inconsistencies in this very section, 303(a), of the Workmen’s Compensation Act in light of the then No-Fault Act, 40 P.S. § 1009.101. As Section 303(a) had been amended five months after passage of the No-Fault Act and specifically stated that it was the sole means of compensation for injuries to employees, the claim under the No-Fault Act for Wagner’s injuries was rejected. Section 303(a) was found to control as it came later in time.
The majority’s holding is inconsistent with Wagner and the rules of statutory construction. Further, it creates an arbitrary classification between claimants covered by an insurance company and those covered through a self-insurer. There can be no valid public policy reason for such a classification. I dissent.

. § 1787 is the section within the MVFRL that specifically relates to self-insurance.