Pennsylvania: Stressed-Out Teacher Forfeited Right to Additional Disability Benefits When She Turned Down Job at Stress-Free School

Section 306(b)(3) of the Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Act generally requires an employer to provide a specific written notice to a claimant if it seeks to modify existing workers’ compensation benefits based, inter alia, on medical evidence establishing that the injured employee is able to return to work in some capacity. The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania held that where the employee had not received any benefits and, indeed, had not yet commenced litigation when the employer offered her alternative employment, there was no requirement to provide the notice. Accordingly, the employee’s right to disability benefits ceased with the offer of available employment; § 306(b)(3) did not apply. The employee, a 70-year-old teacher, sought medical attention after a particularly stressful day in which her second-grade class became unruly and vandalized the room by knocking over desks and chairs, tearing down educational charts, and later ripping down a window shade. Her physician reported to the employer that the teacher could not return to the unruly school. A few days later, the teacher tried to return to work, but stayed only four days, unable to continue to work under the stress. The employer issued a notice of compensation denial, rejecting her contention that she had suffered a work-related injury. A few months later—at the end of the school year—the employer offered her an available position for the upcoming school year at another school that was known to be quiet and much less stressful. She did not report, however, contending she was still under treatment. Several months later, she filed a claim petition. The high court agreed with the Appeals Board that the teacher should receive disability benefits from the time she sought medical treatment, but held the employer’s duty ceased when it offered her the available position.

Thomas A. Robinson, J.D., the Feature National Columnist for the LexisNexis Workers’ Compensation eNewsletter, is the co-author of Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law (LexisNexis).

LexisNexis Online Subscribers: Citations below link to Lexis Advance. Bracketed citations link to lexis.com.

See School Dist. of Philadelphia v. Workers’ Comp. Appeal Bd. (Hilton), 2015 Pa. LEXIS 1130 (May 26, 2015) [2015 Pa. LEXIS 1130 (May 26, 2015)]

See generally Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, § 85.03 [85.03]

Source: Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, the nation’s leading authority on workers’ compensation law.

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