The accident in this case occurred on July 6, 1951, and the claim petition was not filed until 17 months later on December 1, 1952. Consequently, the claim petition was not filed within one year after the accident as required by section 315 of The Workmen’s Compensation Act of June 2,1915, P. L. 736, as last amended, 77 PS §602, which reads in part as follows:
“In cases of personal injury all claims for compensation shall be forever barred, unless, within one year*50 after the accident, the parties shall have agreed upon the compensation payable under this article; or unless, within one year after the accident, one of the parties shall have filed a petition as provided in article four hereof. . . . Where, however, payments of compensation have been made in any case, said limitations shall not take effect until the expiration of one year from the time of the making of the most recent payment prior to the date of filing such petition.” (Italics supplied.)
The question now before us is: Has claimant met the burden of proof required of him of showing either that payments of compensation had been made or, “by clear and persuasive evidence”: Mackanitz v. Pittsburgh & West Virginia Railway Co., 157 Pa. Superior Ct. 359, 364; Behanna v. Meyers et al., 158 Pa. Superior Ct. 208, 213; that his employer’s representatives either fraudulently or innocently so deported themselves as to mislead or deceive him into postponing the filing of his claim petition?
Claimant entered the employ of defendant company as an electric welder on May 23, 1951. On July 6, 1951, while in the course of his employment as a welder, a metal frame fell across his right wrist resulting in a fracture of the navicular bone. On July 11, 1951, he was examined by defendant’s physician who diagnosed the injury as a sprain of the right wrist. On December 26, 1951, the first X-ray picture was taken which revealed the fracture and a cast was applied. During all of this time claimant continued to work at his customary job and received the usual pay for such work. From timé to time he was treated by defendant’s physician and for a considerable portion of the time after the X-ray on December 26, 1951, he worked while wearing a cast on his wrist. While claimant was continuing to work on his usual job, although consulting defendant’s physician from time
Our courts have been liberal in construing the proviso in section 315 of The Workmen’s Compensation Act which permits the filing of a claim petition more than one year after the date of an accident where “payments of compensation have been made”: Hickey v. Cudahy Packing Co., et al., 153 Pa. Superior Ct. 45; Schrecengost v. Heilman Trucking Co., 174 Pa. Superior Ct. 299.
In the Hickey case, the employer paid an amount equal to wages for a period of two months after claimant ceased to perform any services. In the Schrecengost case the employer gave claimant $40, “the same as compensation pay” and not for services rendered. In each of these cases the court found that “payments of compensation” had been made within the meaning of section 315 and that the period within which a claim petition might be filed had been extended. In both of these cases, however, the payments made by
“From the date of the accident until July 5, 1939, claimant received his regular wages of $40 per week. The payments were for services rendered and because they were received as wages they did not toll the limitation of the act. Chase v. Emery Manufacturing Co., 271 Pa. 265, 113 A 840.”
In the Chase case the Supreme Court said, page 268, “It must clearly appear the amounts were so paid and received as compensation under the act, and not as wages for employment. . . .”
Since the wages paid to claimant in the present case were clearly in consideration of him rendering his usual services as electric welder for defendant company they cannot be considered as payments of compensation so as to toll the limitation period provided in the statute.
Nor do we believe that claimant has shown “by clear and persuasive evidence” that defendant’s representatives either fraudulently or innocently so deported themselves as to mislead or deceive him. It should be noted that we are concerned in this case only with the events which occurred in the period from the date of the accident, July 6, 1951, until July 6, 1952, during which a-claim petition should have been filed by claimant. During that time claimant continued in defendant’s employ at his regular job and received his usual wages therefor. He consulted defendant’s physician on several occasions, had an X-ray examination on December 26, 1951, and worked with a cast on his wrist for a considerable portion of the time from December 26, 1951, until July 6, 1952, the end of the statutory period for filing a claim petition. From this
Claimant suggests that he was deceived because: (1) Defendant continued him in his regular employment and (2) that defendant provided medical attention for claimant. Certainly the fact that claimant was continued in his usual position at his regular rate of pay was no deception. Nor does the rendering of medical services by an employer toll the statute. In Paolis v. Tower Hill Connellsville Coke Co., 265 Pa. 291, the court said:
“It is clear the ‘compensation’ specified in those sections does not refer to the payments for ‘reasonable surgical, medical and hospital services, medicines and supplies,’ under section 306, clause (e), (renumbered section 306, (f)), but only to those to be made to the injured employee. . . .” (Italics supplied.) See also Guy v. Stoecklein Baking Co., et al., 133 Pa. Superior Ct. 38.
The decision of the Workmen’s Compensation Board having been against the party having the burden of proof, the only question before the court is whether the board’s findings of fact are consistent with each' other and with its conclusions of law and can be sustained without a capricious disregard of competent testimony: Williams v. New Bethlehem Burial Service, 167 Pa. Superior Ct. 364. In our opinion the
We, therefore, enter the following
Decree
And now, August 15, 1955, at 9:30 a.m., on due consideration the appeal of claimant from the decision of the Workmen’s Compensation Board dismissing his petition is dismissed.
Exception
To all of which counsel for claimant excepts and prays that an exception be noted and bill sealed; all of which is, the day and year aforesaid, accordingly done.
