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Boatman v. Workers' Compensation Appeal Board10/26/2005
Christine Boatman (Boatman) petitions for review of an order of the Workers' Compensation Appeal Board (Board) affirming Workers' Compensation Judge Christina Tarantelli's (WCJ Tarantelli, WCJ) denial of Boatman's claim petition. We affirm the Board.
Boatman was employed by the Commissioners of York County (Commissioners) as a certified nursing assistant. The Commissioners issued a Temporary Notice of Compensation Payable on May 4, 2001 for an injury Boatman claimed to have suffered in the nature of a "cervical strain" to her "upper back/neck" on April 18, 2001. The Commissioners subsequently filed a Notice Stopping Temporary Compensation effective May 25, 2001 and a Notice of Workers Compensation Denial on May 25, 2001. Boatman filed a Claim Petition on August 9, 2001, alleging that the injury she sustained on April 18, 2001 had caused a temporary disability from that date to May 23, 2001 and full disability thereafter. Boatman returned to work during the litigation, claiming that her disability ended on December 13, 2001. The Commissioners filed an answer in which they denied all the allegations in Boatman's petition.
Boatman testified that she heard a crack in her neck as she was taking a patient off a bedpan, and that later that day her neck cracked and popped when she was pulling a patient with a draw sheet. But the WCJ found from evidence introduced at the hearing that when Boatman reported the incident to her supervisor she said that her neck had started hurting somewhere between the two incidents and that she told a rehabilitative specialist that she could not recall a specific incident that occasioned the pain. She reported to one doctor that she hurt herself while taking care of patients, to another that her injury occurred while putting a patient on a bedpan, to a third that she injured herself when she fell forward, and to another that she fell at work, caught herself by putting her hands out in front of her, and then heard a crack when putting a bedpan on the floor and a pop in her neck later in the day. Boatman also denied any history of psychiatric problems in spite of the records from York Hospital indicating that she was admitted to its inpatient psychiatric unit on May 23, 2001, the day she claimed her full disability began, and the testimony of Sharon Shaffer of the Commissioners' risk management office who testified that Boatman left work on that date after complaining about disorientation, nervousness, problems at home, and problems with her medications but making no mention of any injury. Shaffer also testified that, on an earlier occasion, Boatman told her that she thought that she had thrown up part of her liver.
Boatman relied on medical reports and records at the hearing to establish the fact of her injury, but the WCJ refused to allow the introduction of the affidavits of medical witnesses in place of the deposition testimony Boatman had agreed to secure.
WCJ Tarantelli accepted Boatman's testimony as competent but not credible, accepted the testimony of Sharon Shaffer as competent and credible, and rejected the opinions of each and every medical provider as incompetent and not persuasive. WCJ Tarantelli denied the petition, finding that Boatman had "failed to present competent, credible evidence to support her claim that she was injured at work on 4/18/2001." (Conclusion of Law No. 3). Boatman appealed to the Board, the Board affirmed the WCJ, and this appeal followed.
The questions we are asked to consider are 1) whether the WCJ erred in refusing to admit affidavits in place of deposition testimony; 2) whether the WCJ's decision to deny Boatman's claim was arbitrary and capricious; 3) whether the WCJ erred in finding
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