Taras v. Wausau Ins. Companies

• Citation: 602 A.2d 882,412 Pa.Super. 37
• Parties: Brian TARAS and Nancy Taras, Appellant, v. WAUSAU INSURANCE COMPANIES, Barbara Eckels, R.N., David L. Scasta, M.D., Penn Executive Diagnostic Center, Inc., Penn Diagnostic Center, and Philadelphia Psychiatric Center.
• Decision Date: 06 February 1992
• Court: Pennsylvania Superior Court

Page 882

602 A.2d 882

412 Pa.Super. 37

Brian TARAS and Nancy Taras, Appellant, v. WAUSAU INSURANCE COMPANIES, Barbara Eckels, R.N., David L.

Scasta, M.D., Penn Executive Diagnostic Center,

Inc., Penn Diagnostic Center, and

Philadelphia Psychiatric Center.

Superior Court of Pennsylvania.

Argued Sept. 18, 1991.

Filed Feb. 6, 1992.

Brian M. Monahan, Easton, for appellant.

Glenn M. Campbell, Philadelphia, for appellees Wausau Ins. Companies and Eckels.

Before JOHNSON, FORD ELLIOTT and HESTER, JJ.

FORD ELLIOTT, Judge:

This is an appeal from the December 20, 1990 order of the Court of Common Pleas of Bucks County, granting Wausau Insurance Company and Barbara Eckels' preliminary objections and dismissing appellants' complaint with prejudice. The trial court concluded that Eckels and Wausau were immune from suit pursuant to the statutory immunity provisions in the Workmen's Compensation Act. Because we find the injury for which appellant seeks redress from these appellees to be non-work related, we reverse the order granting appellees' preliminary objections.

Appellant, Brian Taras, was involved in an automobile accident during the scope and course of his employment. As a result of the accident, Taras suffered physical injuries, as well as depression and anxiety. Wausau Insurance Company, in its capacity as worker's compensation carrier for Taras' employer, provided compensation benefits for Taras.

In addition to handling Taras' benefits claim, Wausau coordinated Taras' medical treatment. Barbara Eckels, a registered nurse, analyzed and monitored Taras' treatment on behalf of Wausau Insurance Company. Brian Taras alleges that Nurse Eckels informed Taras that he was to undergo such treatment, as determined necessary by Wausau, in order to continue his eligibility for benefits.

On August 23, 1985, Nurse Eckels informed Taras that she had arranged for him to be evaluated by various physicians at the Penn Diagnostic Center. After undergoing psychological testing and evaluation, the physicians at Penn Diagnostic Center recommended that Taras undergo treatment at Philadelphia Psychiatric Center. Taras was hospitalized at the Center from November 13, 1985, through November 22, 1985. While at the center, Taras came under the care of Dr. David L. Scasta, who thereafter treated Taras until April of 1987.

In February of 1987, Dr. Scasta recommend that Taras undergo electro convulsive therapy ("electric shock treatment"). Taras was again admitted to the Philadelphia Psychiatric Center, and on February 17, 1987, underwent electro convulsive therapy, performed under the supervision of Dr. Scasta.

Eventually, in April of 1987, Taras came under the care of Doctors Allan and Harriet Wells, who diagnosed him as suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. The diagnosis indicated that the disorder initially resulted from Taras' activities as a soldier in the Vietnam War. The disorder was then exacerbated by the automobile accident and subsequent electro convulsive therapy.

As a result of being diagnosed as suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and being advised that electro convulsive therapy was an inappropriate form of treatment for such disorder, Taras filed a lawsuit against Wausau Insurance Company, Barbara Eckels, R.N., David L. Scasta, M.D., Penn Diagnostic Center, Penn Executive Diagnostic Center, Inc., and the Philadelphia Psychiatric Center.

Taras' claim against Wausau and Eckels was that they were negligent in directing and coordinating his medical care; care which they indicated was necessary in order for Taras to continue receiving compensation benefits.

Wausau and Eckels filed preliminary objections to the complaint, raising statutory immunity under the Workmen's Compensation Act as an affirmative defense. ¹ Following oral argument, the Honorable Michael J. Kane granted the preliminary objections and dismissed the complaint against Wausau and Eckels, with prejudice. This timely appeal followed.

Appellants raise two issues for our consideration.

I. Whether appellants' complaint sets forth a cause of action against appellee, Wausau Insurance Companies, which is not subject to the statutory immunity from tort liability provided

pursuant to the workmen's compensation act?

II. Whether appellants' complaint sets forth a cause of action against appellee, Barbara Eckels, R.N., which is not subject to the statutory immunity from tort liability provided pursuant to the workmen's compensation act?

We shall address these issues simultaneously, as they both pose the same query; the extent to which the workmen's compensation act will provide immunity to the compensation carrier and its employees or agents.

Initially, we note that the standard of review which we apply when examining a challenge to an order sustaining preliminary objections in the nature of a demurrer, is well-settled.

All material facts set forth in the complaint, as well as all inferences reasonably deducible therefrom, are admitted as true for [the purposes of this review.] Clevenstein v. Rizzuto, 439 Pa. 397, 266 A.2d 623 (1970). The question presented by the demurrer is whether on the facts averred the law says with certainty that no recovery is possible. Hoffman v. Misericordia Hospital of Philadelphia, 439 Pa. 501, 267 A.2d 867 (1970). Where doubt exists as to whether a demurrer should be sustained this doubt should be resolved in favor of overruling it. Birl v. Philadelphia Electric Co., 402 Pa. 297, 167 A.2d 472 (1960).

DeGenova v. Ansel, 382 Pa.Super. 213, 216, 555 A.2d 147, 149 (1988). With this standard in mind, we conclude that the trial court erred in sustaining appellees' preliminary objections in the nature of a demurrer.

As stated previously, the trial court concluded that Wausau and Eckels were entitled to statutory immunity provided by § 303(a) of the Pennsylvania Workmen's Compensation Act. Section 303(a) of the Workmen's Compensation Act provides:

The liability of an employer under this act shall be exclusive and in place of any and all other liability to such employees, his legal representative, husband or wife, parents, dependants next of kin or anyone otherwise entitled to damages in any action at law or otherwise on account of any injury or death as defined in § 301(c)(1) and (2) or occupational disease as defined in § 108.

77 P.S. § 481. The exclusivity provision of this section has been held to bar tort actions flowing from any work-related injury. Lewis v. School District of Philadelphia, 517 Pa. 461, 538 A.2d 862 (1988). A "work-related injury" is defined under §§ 301(c)(1) and (2) of the Act, which provides:

§ 411. 'Injury,' 'personal injury,' and 'injury arising in the course of his employment' defined

(1) The terms 'injury' and 'personal injury,' as used in this act, shall be construed to mean an injury to an employe, regardless of his previous physical condition, arising in the course of his employment and related thereto, and such disease or infection as naturally results from the injury or is aggravated, reactivated or accelerated by the injury; and wherever death is mentioned as a cause for compensation under this act, it shall mean only death resulting from such injury and its resultant effects, and occurring within three hundred weeks after the injury. The term 'injury arising in the course of his employment,' as used in this article, shall not include an injury caused by an act of a third person intended to injure the employe because of reasons personal to him, and not directed against him as an employe or because of his employment; but shall include all other injuries sustained while the employe is actually engaged in the furtherance of the business or affairs of the employer, whether upon the employer's premises or elsewhere, and shall include all injuries caused by the condition of the premises or by the operation of the employer's business or affairs thereon, sustained by the employe, who, though not so engaged, is injured upon the premises occupied by or under the control of the employer, or upon which the employer's business or affairs are being carried on, the employe's presence thereon being required by the nature of his employment.

(2) The terms 'injury,' 'personal injury,' and 'injury arising in the course of his employment,' as used in this act, shall include, unless the context clearly requires otherwise, occupational disease as defined in section 108 of this act: Provided, That whenever occupational disease is the basis for compensation, for disability or death under this act, it shall apply only to disability or death resulting from such disease and occurring within three hundred weeks after the last date of employment in an occupation or industry to which he was exposed to hazards of such disease: And provided further, That if the employe's compensable disability has occurred within such period, his subsequent death as a result of the disease shall likewise be compensable. The provisions of this paragraph (2) shall apply only with respect to the disability or death of an employe which results in whole or in part from the employe's exposure to the hazard of occupational disease after June 30, 1973 in employment covered by The Pennsylvania Workmen's Compensation Act. The employer liable for compensation provided by section 305.1 or section 108, subsections (k), (1), (m), (o), (p) or (q), shall be the employer in whose employment the employe was last exposed for a period of not less than one year to the hazard of the occupational disease claimed. In the event the employe did not work in an exposure at least one year for any employer during the three hundred week period prior to disability or death, the employer liable for the compensation shall be that employer giving the longest period of employment in which the employe was exposed to the hazards of the disease claimed.

77 P.S. § 411. As noted by the Supreme Court in Lewis, this exclusivity provision,

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