Where a Claimant Seeks to Add a Distinct, Consequential Injury to Notice of Compensation Payable and to Reinstate Indemnity Payments, Petitions Must Be Filed Within Three Years of Date of Most Recent Compensation Payment Per Section 413(a)

The claimant sustained a work injury to his neck in 2013. After he returned to work in January 2014, his benefits were suspended. Later, in 2021, he underwent cervical surgery.

In 2022, the claimant filed Reinstatement and Review Petitions. The employer took the position that the petitions were barred by the three-year limitations of Section 413(a) of the Act. The workers’ compensation judge, however, granted the petitions, concluding they were timely filed within the 500-week period of suspension.

The employer appealed the decision to the Workers’ Compensation Appeal Board, which reversed.

The claimant then appealed to the Commonwealth Court, which affirmed the Board’s decision, concluding the petitions were untimely filed. The court stated that a petition to correct a Notice of Compensation Payable or to add consequential injuries must be filed within three years of the date of the most recent payment of compensation. The exception, which allows filing for reinstatement within the 500 weeks for which compensation is payable, applies only to claims for worsening of the accepted injury.

According to the court, the claimant’s C6-C7 disc replacement surgery, performed in December 2021, while related to the accepted work injury of contusions and fractures at the C3-C4 level, was, nevertheless, a distinct and consequential injury. Thus, the claimant had to file his petitions within three years of the date of the most recent compensation payment, and he did not file timely.