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Western Pennsylvania Hospital v. Workers' Compensation Appeal Board3/9/1999
ARGUED: February 9, 1999
The Western Pennsylvania Hospital and Sedgwick James, Inc. (collectively Employer) petition for review of an order of the Workers' Compensation Appeal Board (Board) that affirmed the workers' compensation Judge's (WCJ) decision granting Dennis Cassidy's (Claimant) petition for review but modified Claimant's compensation for disfigurement from four weeks to twenty-two weeks. We affirm.
On March 2, 1995, Claimant suffered a work-related injury. Pursuant to an agreement for compensation, Claimant received benefits for the injury described as a right shoulder injury. On June 6, 1995 Claimant filed a review petition, alleging that the original agreement should be amended to include a C5-6 disc herniation. Claimant also alleged that he was entitled to additional compensation for disfigurement for a scar resulting from surgery related to the disc herniation. Employer denied that Claimant sustained a serious and permanent disfigurement that would entitle Claimant to compensation under the Workers' Compensation Act (Act).
A hearing was held on July 19, 1996, at which Employer stipulated to the amendment to include the disc herniation injury. The only issue remaining before the WCJ concerned whether the scar was compensable. The WCJ viewed the scar, made a finding giving a description of the scar and ordered compensation to be paid to Claimant for four weeks. The WCJ also ordered Employer to reimburse Claimant's attorney for $372.61 for litigation costs.
Following the hearing, Claimant's counsel had submitted a bill of costs which included payments made for medical reports and office records in conjunction with Claimant's disc herniation treatment and surgery. Employer's counsel objected by letter, arguing that no witness used these records at any hearing and, therefore, the costs in securing these records were not chargeable to Employer in the bill of costs. The WCJ overruled Employer's objection finding that the records were obtained in preparation of and to support the petition regardless of the fact that these reports were unneeded in light of Employer's stipulation.
Both parties appealed to the Board. Claimant argued that the four-week award was outside the range most WCJs would select. The Board agreed with Claimant's argument and modified the WCJ's decision after it viewed the scar. The Board relied on Hastings Industries v. Workers' Compensation Appeal Board (Hyatt), 531 Pa. 186, 611 A.2d 1187 (1992), which it credited for allowing the Board to modify the WCJ's award of weeks of compensation. The Board ordered payment for twenty-two weeks to make the award more consistent with those it believed the majority of WCJs in the Commonwealth would order.
In its appeal to the Board, Employer argued that the WCJ erred in awarding the costs for the medical reports. However, the Board affirmed the WCJ's award of costs. Although the Board recognized that the stipulation at the hearing rendered moot the necessity for the records, it held that it was necessary for Claimant to obtain these documents as preparation for the effective prosecution of the case and, therefore, the documents were in fact "used" by the Claimant.
On appeal to this Court, Employer argues 1) that the Board erred in viewing and modifying the number of weeks of compensation for the disfigurement in that Section 423 of the Act, 77 P.S. ยง854, as amended by Act 57, alters the scope of review of the Board, making it a truly appellate body, 2) that the Board erred in modifying the WCJ's award because the twenty-two week award is excessive and 3) that the Board erred in affirming the WCJ's award of costs in that Claimant did not utilize the records in
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