Decision doesn’t reinstate benefits

By Joe Pinchot
Herald Staff Writer

WHEATLAND May 11, 2008 12:05 am

— A workers’ compensation judge had sufficient reason to ax a former Wheatland Tube Corp. employee’s benefits, Commonwealth Court ruled Wednesday.
Walter T. Currie had previously lost an appeal of the decision before the Workers’ Compensation Appeal Board.
Currie testified he suffered a back injury while working in the testing department on Feb. 1, 1994. He worked on and off following the injury, lastly as a pipe counter, which the judge described as “sedentary in nature,” and stopped working in June 2001 because of unrelated heart problems.
The company asked to stop paying benefits because Currie had fully recovered from the 1994 injury, and could continue working as a counter. Currie said pain prevented him from doing any work.
Currie’s position was backed by Dr. John G. Wassil III, who had been treating Currie since July 2001, while the company’s was buoyed by Dr. Victor J. Thomas, who examined Currie twice, in 2004 and 2005.
The judge concluded Thomas’ opinion was “more reliable and persuasive” than Wassil’s, and ended Currie’s payments in 2005.
Commonwealth Court Judge Renée Cohn Jubelirer, writing for the three-judge panel, said Currie tried to ask the panel to review documents not previously presented. She said the panel could not look at them because its role is to determine if any civil rights were violated, errors of law occurred, or if the decision is supported by evidence.
The court also said the workers’ compensation judge has the duty to determine evidence credibility and importance.
The judge made no errors that could be reversed, and was within his authority to reach the decision he made, Judge Jubelirer said.