Antonucci v. W.C.A.B. (U.S. Steel Corp.)

• Decision Date: 29 May 1990
• Citation: 133 Pa.Cmwlth. 273,576 A.2d 401
• Parties: Dominic E. ANTONUCCI, Deceased, Betty J. Antonucci, Widow, Petitioner, v. WORKMEN'S COMPENSATION APPEAL BOARD (U.S. STEEL CORPORATION), Respondent.
• Court: Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court

Page 401

576 A.2d 401

133 Pa.Cmwlth. 273

Dominic E. ANTONUCCI, Deceased, Betty J. Antonucci, Widow, Petitioner, v. WORKMEN'S COMPENSATION APPEAL BOARD (U.S. STEEL

CORPORATION), Respondent.

Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania.

Argued Feb. 7, 1990.

Decided May 29, 1990.

Robert A. Cohen, Pittsburgh, for petitioner.

Valerie S. Faeth, with her, Robert C. Jones, Pittsburgh, for respondent.

Before CRUMLISH, Jr., President Judge, and CRAIG, COLINS, PALLADINO, McGINLEY, SMITH and PELLEGRINI, JJ.

PELLEGRINI, Judge.

Betty J. Antonucci (Claimant) appeals from a decision of The Workmen's Compensation Appeal Board (Board), affirming a Referee's dismissal of her fatal claim petition as time barred under § 301(c)(1) of The Pennsylvania Workmen's Compensation Act (Workmen's Compensation Act). ¹

The Claimant's husband, Dominic Antonucci, died in 1986 as a result of a work-related injury. He sustained the injury in 1972 when he fell about 65 feet onto a wooden platform while working for USX as a ladle-liner helper. The accident rendered Antonucci quadriplegic. The quadriplegia resulted in the decedent suffering from urinary tract infections and decubitus ulcers. These debilities were the cause of the decedent's respiratory arrest that ended his life.

Throughout the course of his illnesses, decedent received total disability workmen's compensation benefits from USX. The Claimant, upon termination of her husband's benefits, filed a fatal claim petition. The parties stipulated that the decedent's death was caused by a work-related injury arising from the course of his employment with USX. Because decedent's death occurred 300 weeks after his injury, the Referee found that the Claimant was precluded from receiving benefits by § 301(c)(1) of the Workmen's Compensation Act. ² On appeal to the Board, it was further stipulated that the injury sustained by the decedent was not an occupational disease. ³ The Board, noting that the occupational disease exception cannot be used by the Claimant, affirmed the Referee's decision that the claim fails to meet § 301(c)(1) requirements, and this appeal followed.

Claimant contends that § 301(c) is unconstitutional under the Pennsylvania Constitution, as well as the United States Constitution. She contends that Article III, § 18 of the Pennsylvania Constitution prohibits the legislature from enacting compensation legislation that precludes claims because of time limitations. If no such prohibition exists, the issue then is whether § 301(c)(1) of the Workmen's Compensation Act, which denies benefits to a claimant when more than 300 weeks have elapsed between the commencement of the compensable injury and the injury-related death, violates the guarantees of due process and equal protection under the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution ⁴ and Article I of the Pennsylvania Constitution.

Those who, as here, seek to overturn legislative action on constitutional grounds, have a heavy burden. As the Supreme Court stated:

The most fundamental principle of statutory construction is the presumption that the legislature has acted constitutionally. This presumption reflects on the part of the judiciary the respect due to the legislature as a co-equal branch of government. School District of Deer Lakes v. Kane, 463 Pa. 554, 345 A.2d 658 (1975). Accordingly, courts properly defer to the legislature in the exercise of its function and may refuse to enforce a statute only if it clearly, palpably, and plainly violates the constitution. Tosto v. Pennsylvania Nursing Home Loan Agency, 460 Pa. 1, 331 A.2d 198 (1975).

Snider v. Thornburgh, 496 Pa. 159, 166, 436 A.2d 593, 596 (1981).

Claimant's contention that § 301(c)(1) of the Workmen's Compensation Act, 77 P.S. § 411(1), is unconstitutional under Article III, § 18 of the Pennsylvania Constitution, is a misreading of this provision because no where does the provision affirmatively state that the legislation can impose such restrictions. Article III, § 18 provides:

The General Assembly may enact laws requiring the payment by employers, or employers and employees jointly, of reasonable compensation for injuries to employees arising in the course of their employment, and for occupational diseases of employees, whether or not such injuries or diseases result in death, and regardless of fault of employer or employee, and fixing the basis of ascertainment of such compensation and the maximum and minimum limits thereof, and providing special or general remedies for the collection thereof; but in no other cases shall the General Assembly limit the amount to be recovered for injuries resulting in death, or for injuries to persons or property, and in case of death from such injuries, the right of action shall survive, and the General Assembly shall prescribe for those whose benefit such actions shall be prosecuted. No act shall prescribe any limitations of time within which suits may be brought against corporations for injuries to persons or property, or for other causes different from those fixed by general law regulating actions against natural persons, and such acts now existing are avoided.

This provision empowers the General Assembly, if it chooses, to enact laws to compensate for injuries or diseases, including those that cause the death of an employee, that arise out of their employment. Rather than placing any limitation on the General Assembly, Article III, § 18, grants it expansive power to fashion a system to compensate employees for work-related injuries or disease. Rather than precluding time limitations, the last sentence of Article III, § 18, envisions such time limitations as long as the time limitations are alike for individuals and corporations. ⁵

Recently, this court, in Grosser v. L.E. Smith Glass Co., 95 Pa. Commonwealth Ct. 450, 505 A.2d 1093 (1986), in a mirror image fact situation, confirmed the General Assembly's power to enact or remove time limitations. In that case, an employer contended that § 301(i) of The Pennsylvania Occupational Disease Act, 77 P.S. § 1401(c) (Occupational Disease Act), ⁶ was unconstitutional because it waived all of the Occupational Disease Act's limitation periods, thereby precluding employers and other carriers from predicting their overall exposure. Rejecting this contention, this court held that it was within the General Assembly's discretion to amend that legislation to allow for claims that were previously time barred to compensate individuals who contracted occupational diseases.

Accordingly, we conclude the legislature is not prohibited under Article III, § 18, from including a statute of limitations in legislation enacted to compensate employees for work-related injuries.

Claimant next argues that the time provisions of § 301(c) requiring decedent's death to occur within 300 weeks of decedent's work injury for Claimant to be eligible for compensation violates both her due process and equal protection rights as guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. ⁷ These arguments were addressed and dismissed by this court's decision in Formicola v. Workmen's Compensation Appeal Board (City of Phila.), 97 Pa. Commonwealth Ct. 274, 509 A.2d 434 (1986).

In dismissing the claimant's substantive due process argument ⁸ that it was arbitrary and unreasonable to eliminate dependent's right to benefits after 300 weeks, this court, in Formicola, applied the rational basis test set forth in Kelley v. Johnson, 425 U.S. 238, 96 S.Ct. 1440, 47 L.Ed.2d 708 (1976). That test requires the claimant to demonstrate the lack of a rational basis between § 301(c) and the goals of the Workmen's Compensation Act. In Formicola, this court stated:

The stated and undisputed social purpose of the Pennsylvania Workmen's Compensation Act is to strike a balance between the interests of employees and the interests of employers. Thus, the constitutional inquiry before us is not whether a more effective measure might be devised, but whether the challenged measure promotes the stated purpose in any degree whatsoever. In this connection, a limitation which preserves the workmen's compensation fund for those claimants who are most clearly entitled to compensation will be upheld as not infringing upon due process rights. It is readily apparent that this is the function of § 301(c)(1).

Formicola, 97 Pa.Commonwealth Ct. at 278, 509 A.2d at 436.

The court, in Formicola, found as a general proposition that it is easier to prove the casual connection between a work injury and death the closer in time between events. Also, the corollary to that rule is the longer the time between work injury and death, more opportunity exists for intervening causes to weaken the casual connection. The court held the General Assembly's 300 week limitation is reasonable because the casual connection between an injury and death is more easily discernable the lesser the time between those events. Formicola. Because the purpose of the Act is directed toward an employee's need to be compensated for a work-related injury, Grosser, 95 Pa. Commonwealth Ct. at 456, 505 A.2d at 1096, and striking a balance between competing interests of employees and employers, and preserve the fund for injured workers, Formicola, 97 Pa. Commonwealth Ct. at 278, 509 A.2d at 436, the challenged measure promotes the stated purpose of the Act. Consequently, the legislature did not act unreasonably by enacting the time limitation.

Claimant also challenges § 301(c)(1) on equal protection grounds. She contends that there is no valid distinction in allowing benefits to those that claim under occupational disease related deaths that occur more than 300 weeks after commencement of the occupational injury under § 301(c)(2), and disallowing claims arising from injury-related deaths that occur more than 300 weeks after the compensable injury, violates equal protection under the law.

Just as a rational basis test is employed to determine whether Claima...