Fotta v. W.C.A.B. (U.S. Steel/USX Corp. Maple Creek Mine)

• Decision Date: 23 August 1993
• Citation: 534 Pa. 191,626 A.2d 1144
• Parties: Abraham E. FOTTA, Appellant, v. WORKMEN'S COMPENSATION APPEAL BOARD (U.S. STEEL/USX CORPORATION MAPLE CREEK MINE), Appellee.
• Court: Pennsylvania Supreme Court

Page 1144

626 A.2d 1144

534 Pa. 191

Abraham E. FOTTA, Appellant, v. WORKMEN'S COMPENSATION APPEAL BOARD (U.S. STEEL/USX CORPORATION MAPLE CREEK MINE), Appellee.

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.

Argued March 8, 1993.

Decided June 1, 1993.

Reargument Denied Aug. 23, 1993.

[534 Pa. 192] Charles G. Gentile, Uniontown, for appellant.

James A. Mazzotta, Roy F. Walters, Jr., Fried, Kane, Walters & Zuschlag, Pittsburgh, for U.S. Steel.

Valerie S. Faeth, Pittsburgh, for USX Corp.

Before NIX, C.J., and LARSEN, FLAHERTY, ZAPPALA, PAPADAKOS, CAPPY and MONTEMURO, JJ.

OPINION

NIX, Chief Justice.

The Appellant in this case is appealing the denial of his workmen's compensation benefits. His claim was rejected by a referee who found that his disability was not attributable to an accident he had at work. That decision was affirmed by the Workmen's Compensation Appeal Board and by the majority of a divided panel of the Commonwealth Court. However, since the record does not support the referee's finding, we are constrained to reverse the judgment below.

The Appellant, Abraham Fotta, was employed by the U.S. Steel/USX Corporation at Maple Creek Mine for eight years. On July 23, 1984, while working in the mine as a supply motorman, Fotta slipped from a machine he was riding and fell approximately two feet to the ground. He later filed a claim for benefits under the Pennsylvania Workmen's Compensation Act. ¹ In that claim, he alleged that he injured his right ankle and foot.

Fotta's claim was reviewed twice, and on each occasion he was denied benefits. On the first occasion, the referee dismissed the claim after finding that Fotta's disability was not due to a work-related injury, but instead to a pre-existing tumor, technically referred to as pigmented villonodular synovitis. The Workmen's Compensation Appeal Board ("Board") affirmed that decision, but permitted Fotta to resubmit his claim so that the referee could consider new material in the form of medical reports from his treating physician, Mark A. Goodman, M.D. Fotta subsequently filed the appropriate petition and was granted a new hearing.

At the second hearing, Fotta testified and offered two medical reports from Dr Goodman. Two reports from a second physician, William J. Mitchell, M.D., were also submitted; Fotta offered one, while his employer offered the other. The referee cited this latter report as the basis for her decision to deny benefits.

After this second dismissal, Fotta appealed to the Board, which again affirmed the referee's decision and noted that the referee's findings were based upon substantial and competent evidence. On appeal, a divided panel of the Commonwealth Court affirmed the Board's decision. The majority reasoned that the referee was faced with conflicting medical evidence and committed no error by relying on Dr. Mitchell's opinion instead of Dr. Goodman's to conclude that Fotta's injury was not caused, aggravated or accelerated by the accident at work.

The dissenting member of the panel took issue with this view. He concluded that the referee misconstrued the record which, in fact, contained uncontroverted evidence that the accident at work contributed to Fotta's disability. For that reason the dissenting member would have reversed the Board's Order. Fotta appealed to this Court, and we granted allocatur. 527 Pa. 637, 592 A.2d 1304 (1991).

The claimant in a workmen's compensation case has the burden of proving the causal connection between his alleged disability and the injury he sustained at work. Lewis v. W.C.A.B. (Pittsburgh Bd. of Educ.), 508 Pa. 360, 365, 498 A.2d 800, 802 (1985). That burden is satisfied if he proves his alleged disability either "results from the injury or is aggravated, reactivated or accelerated by the injury...." 77 P.S. § 411(1) (defining compensable injury). In the event there is no obvious causal connection between the alleged disability and the accident, the claimant can only establish the requisite connection by unequivocal medical testimony.

Where medical testimony is necessary to establish a causal connection, the medical witness must testify, not that the injury or condition might have or possibly came from the assigned cause, but that in his professional opinion the result in question did come from the assigned cause. Medical evidence which is less than positive or which is based upon possibilities may not constitute legally competent evidence for the purpose of establishing the causal relationship.

Lewis, 508 Pa. at 365-66, 498 A.2d at 802 (citations omitted).

In this instance, there is no obvious causal connection between Fotta's injured ankle and the fall he suffered at work. Prior to the accident, Fotta was experiencing ankle problems related to pigmented villonodular synovitis. Therefore he could only prevail if he provided unequivocal medical testimony establishing that his disability either resulted from the fall or that his pre-existing condition was aggravated by the fall.

When presented with a workmen's compensation appeal, we review the referee's conclusions while ascertaining that the facts found by the referee are supported by substantial evidence. Id. at 366, 498 A.2d at 803. Instantly, Fotta...