A. Judd Woytek

We successfully represented an insurance company before the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania. The court agreed with our argument that the claimant needed to provide notice of his work-related injury to the defendant insurance company within 120 days of the occurrence of the injury due to his combined status as sole proprietor/owner and also the employee in this matter. The judges distinguished the facts of the case due to the fact that the claimant was a sole proprietor, owner and the only employee of his own business. The court agreed that allowing the claimant to pursue a claim, by claiming that he provided notice to himself immediately when the accident occurred, but did not bother to report the injury to the insurance company for over a year thereafter, would result in an absurdity and put the insurance company at a disadvantage in the investigation of the claim. The court also noted that the definition of “employer” in certain portions of the Act includes not only the actual employer as a business itself, but also the employer’s duly authorized agent or its insurer, if such insurer has assumed the employer’s liability. Since the claimant failed to provide notice to the insurance company within 120 days of his injury, the court held that the Claim Petition was barred. The Claim Petition was dismissed, and the claimant was not entitled to any benefits at all.

In our successful appeal to the Commonwealth Court, the workers’ compensation judge had awarded a closed period of benefits and then terminated all benefits, despite the employer’s late answer. The judge found that the description of injury was not well-pled and, therefore, not deemed admitted. The Appeal Board reversed the judge on the full termination of benefits, saying that, since our IME physician did not acknowledge a work-related psychiatric injury, his testimony was in conflict with the admitted injury due to the late answer. They reversed the judge and ordered reinstatement of temporary total disability benefits. The Commonwealth Court found in our favor and reversed. The court held that the judge was correct that the injury was not well-pled and that we were not deemed to have admitted a psychiatric injury. Therefore, they reinstated the judge’s decision which terminated benefits.

The claimant alleged issues with his speech, vision and balance. His treating physician diagnosed a concussion with post-concussion syndrome and cervicalgia resulting in gait, visual and speech dysfunction, headaches, nausea, vomiting, dizziness, sensitivity to light and sound, and difficulty walking. The judge limited the injury to a scalp contusion and traumatic Bell’s Palsy, awarded less than 11 weeks’ of benefits, and terminated benefits as of our IME.

We won a favorable decision from an Administrative Law Judge on a Federal Black Lung claim. The judge credited the claimant with 11 years of qualifying coal mining employment, but found that the claimant had failed to prove a totally disabling respiratory impairment and, therefore, denied the claim. We presented evidence from our medical expert that the claimant did not contract coal workers’ pneumoconiosis as the result of his work in the coal mines, and that he was not disabled by a respiratory impairment. The judge addressed the issue of total respiratory disability first and found the claimant failed to meet the burden of proof with a pulmonary function study, an arterial blood gas study, and medical opinion evidence. The judge credited the opinions of our medical expert over those of both of the claimant’s expert and the independent expert retained by the Department of Labor. The judge found no respiratory disability and, therefore, denied the claim.

We obtained a favorable decision denying a claim petition that alleged a low back injury, including sprain/strains and intervertebral disc displacement status, after multiple surgeries. The claimant had a lumbar laminectomy in 2016 and a lumbar fusion in 2018. He alleged a work injury in April 2019 when emptying a small trash can into a dumpster. During the course of the litigation, however, the claimant and his doctor offered testimony that the claimant’s back problems, including the 2016 and 2018 surgeries, were related to his general employment duties with the employer and that the April 2019 incident was the “straw that broke the camel’s back.” We presented expert medical testimony from an orthopedic surgeon that the claimant’s back problems were degenerative in nature and were not caused or aggravated by his work activities or the alleged April 2019 incident. The judge denied the claim petition outright and found that the claimant had failed to sustain his burden of proving any work-related injury.

We established that the employer was never served with the notice of assignment of the claim petition to a judge. While the claimant’s attorney had properly served the claim petition itself on the employer, we correctly argued that it is the notice of assignment that triggers the employer’s obligation to file an answer within 20 days. We were able to prove that the employer’s address on the notice of assignment had the wrong zip code and that the employer was never served. Therefore, the judge found that the employer had a reasonable excuse for its late answer to the claim petition.

The injury was accepted for a foot contusion for medical benefits only. The claimant claimed much more severe injuries and sought wage loss benefits after his termination from employment. We successfully argued that the injury was limited to a contusion from which the claimant had recovered, and that his termination was for cause. The Workers’ Compensation Judge denied the claim petition and granted our termination petition.

We received a favorable decision from the Department of Labor (DOL) denying a coal miner’s claim for benefits when the only evidence submitted by his widow was the death certificate listing severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) as the primary cause of death. The DOL claims examiner agreed with our position that the death certificate alone, was insufficient evidence to sustain the claimant’s burden of proving that her husband had totally disabling coal workers’ pneumoconiosis during his lifetime. Benefits were denied.

We were successful in obtaining a decision denying a widow’s claim for Federal Black Lung benefits. The deceased miner worked in underground coal mining for 11 years. His lifetime claim for benefits was denied after numerous claim filings and appeals. The widow then sought survivor’s benefits based upon the opinion of her medical expert, who opined that the miner’s death was hastened by coal workers’ pneumoconiosis. The judge rejected the widow’s expert in favor of our expert, who testified the miner’s death was not caused or hastened by pneumoconiosis. The widow requested reconsideration and attempted to submit additional evidence (an additional medical report and 12 medical journal articles) that she had not submitted during the litigation of the claim. The judge again rejected the claim on reconsideration.

In this Pennsylvania workers’ compensation action, the judge found that the claimant failed to prove a loss in earnings related to his work injury since returning to work. Instead, he found that the claimant’s loss in earnings was due to lack of work caused by weather conditions or other factors. Additionally, the judge denied both penalty petitions, finding that the claimant had failed to prove a violation of the Act by the carrier for refusal to pay wage loss benefits and medical bills. The judge found that the medical bills were properly denied by the carrier for lack of documentation as required by the Act.

We successfully defended a survivor’s claim for Federal Black Lung Benefits. The miner had worked 11 years in underground mining, had acknowledged simple coal workers’ pneumoconiosis (CWP), and died due to heart failure and COPD (per the death certificate). The judge credited the opinions of our medical expert that the miner’s simple CWP did not cause or hasten his death, and rejected the opinions of the claimant’s medical expert, who opined that the miner’s CWP resulted in inflammation and arteriosclerosis that resulted in his heart failure and death.

​The claimant worked as a coal miner for approximately nine years in underground mining. The administrative law judge denied benefits, finding the claimant had failed to establish that he suffered from a totally disabling respiratory condition. The claimant appealed. The denial of benefits was affirmed on appeal. The Benefits Review Board dismissed the claimant’s arguments that he had additional coal mine employment that would have entitled him to a presumption that his total disability was related to his coal mine employment. The BRB noted that the claimant had failed to prove a total respiratory disability and, therefore, the presumption would not apply irrespective of the number of years of coal mine employment that he proved.

The claimant had established that he had worked in the coal mining industry and was exposed to coal dust for a period over 17 years. ​Medical evidence also established that the miner did indeed have coal workers’ pneumoconiosis (Black Lung). However, the judge found that the miner was not totally disabled due to his pneumoconiosis. Therefore, he was not entitled to benefits, and the claim was denied. In another Federal Black Lung benefits claim, we presented testimony to prove, through pulmonary function testing, arterial blood gas testing and medical opinion evidence, that a coal miner who had begun work in the coal mines at the age of twelve did not suffer from a totally disabling respiratory impairment that precluded him from engaging in his usual coal mine employment.