27 Pa. Commw. 51 | Pa. Commw. Ct. | 1976
Opinion by
Alfred Ackiewicz (claimant), who was employed in the shipping department of Metalstand Furniture Manufacturing Co. (employer), allegedly suffered a back injury as a result of an accident in the course of his employment on October 4, 1971. He filed a claim petition pursuant to The Pennsylvania Workmen’s Compensation Act
Section 419 of the Act,
It is an established rule, however, that an order of the Board remanding a case to a referee for taking additional testimony is generally interlocutory and therefore unappealable. Harris v. No. 1 Contracting Corporation of Delaware, 215 Pa. Superior Ct. 524, 258 A.2d 663 (1969); Shemanchick v. M & S Coal Company, Inc., 167 Pa. Superior Ct. 350, 74 A.2d 764 (1950), and we have so held, Workmen’s Compensation Appeal Board v. Burke-Parsons Bowlby Corp., supra; Workmen’s Compensation Appeal Board v. E-C Apparatus Corp., 20 Pa. Commonwealth Ct. 128, 339 A.2d 899 (1975). The basis for this rule is that, in remanding a case for such a reason, the Board clearly indicates that it has not yet reached a final decision, and a reviewing court should therefore hesitate to act before the administrative process has been completed. Royal Pioneer Ind., Inc. v. Workmen’s Compensation Appeal Board, 11 Pa. Commonwealth Ct. 132, 309 A.2d 831 (1973). We have reviewed such remand orders of the Board only in situations where the remand would have served no proper judicial purpose. In Riley Stoker Corp. v. Workmen’s Compensation Appeal Board, 9 Pa. Commonwealth Ct. 533, 308 A.2d 205 (1973), we vacated a remand order of the Board because a careful review of the record established that the appeal from the referee’s order had not been timely filed. We also set aside a remand order of the Board in United Metal Fabricators v. Zindash, 8 Pa. Commonwealth Ct. 339, 301 A.2d 708 (1973), where an examination of the record showed that no other conclusion hut that of the referee could
Order
And Now, this 9th day of November, 1976, the appeal of Metalstand Furniture Manufacturing Company is hereby quashed.
Act of June 2, 1915, P.L. 736, as amended, 77 P.S. §1 et seq.
Section 419 of the Act provides that
“[t]he board may remand any case involving any question of fact arising under any appeal to a referee to hear evidence and report to the board the testimony taken before him or such testimony and findings of fact thereon as the board may order. The department may refer any question of fact arising out of any petition assigned to a referee, to any other referee to hear evidence, and report the testimony so taken thereon to the original referee.”