Triangle Building Center v. WCAB (Linch)

In Triangle Building Center v. Workers' Compensation Appeal Board (Linch), 560 Pa. 540, 746 A.2d 1108 (2000), our Supreme Court considered the question of whether the calculation of a claimant's average weekly wage should reflect concurrent earnings where the claimant was injured on one job while laid off temporarily from a concurrent employment. The claimant in that case had worked full-time for R & J Industries (R & J) and several years later obtained part-time employment (twenty-five to forty hours per week) with Triangle Building Center (Triangle). While working for Triangle, the claimant sustained an injury. At the time of his injury, he was experiencing a temporary lay-off from R & J. The notice of compensation payable (NCP) Triangle issued did not reflect the claimant's wages from R & J. After approximately only one month, the claimant returned to work at Triangle, and, less than one month later, he returned to work at R & J when work became available. Nevertheless, Claimant was subsequently forced to stop working due to the prior injury sustained at Triangle. Shortly after he resumed disability status, the claimant was required to discontinue his employment with R & J because of his injury. The claimant then formally requested that Triangle reinstate total disability benefits and also amend the NCP to include his earnings from R & J in his average weekly wage calculation. While Triangle initially agreed to that request, approximately two years later, Triangle filed a petition to review compensation benefits asserting that it had mistakenly agreed to include the claimant's earnings from R & J, based upon the fact that, at the time of the claimant's original work injury, he had not actually been working for R & J because of the temporary lay-off. The WCJ concluded that the claimant's employment with R & J constituted concurrent employment. Employer appealed to the Board, but the Board affirmed. Employer then filed a petition for review with this Court and we reversed. Claimant thereafter filed an appeal with our Supreme Court, which reversed the decision and order of this Court, thereby reinstating the WCJ's original decision. In rendering its decision, our Supreme Court stated as follows: The mechanics of the legislative scheme demonstrate the General Assembly's intention that the baseline figure from which benefits are calculated should reasonably reflect the economic reality of a claimant's recent pre-injury earning experience, with some benefit of the doubt to be afforded to the claimant in the assessment.... We believe that the General Assembly directed inclusion of concurrent wages in the benefits computation -- to create a reasonable picture of a claimant's pre-injury earning experience for use as a projection of potential future wages and, correspondingly, earnings loss. Triangle Building Center, 560 Pa. at 548-9, 746 A.2d at 1112.