interpreting “brought or taken” in a statute concerning appeals from a workmen’s compensation board to include appeals mailed within the appeal period
How later courts described this case
- interpreting “brought or taken” in a statute concerning appeals from a workmen’s compensation board to include appeals mailed within the appeal period
Written by the judges who cited it.
The opinion
OPINION OF THE COURT
MANDERINO, Justice.
The issue presented in this appeal is whether an appeal from an order of the Workmen’s Compensation Appeal Board to the Commonwealth Court is perfected as of the date when it is mailed or as of the date when it is received and filed in that court.
On February 15, 1973, an order against appellant was entered and
mailed
by the Workmen’s Compensation Appeal Board. On March 6, 1973, the appellant, an employee-claimant,
mailed
his appeal to the Commonwealth Court. The appeal was
received and filed
in the Commonwealth Court on March 8, 1973. The Commonwealth Court
sua sponte
dismissed the appeal as untimely holding that March 7, 1973, was the final day on which the appellant could appeal.
General v. E. Roseman Co., et al.,
10 Pa.Cmwlth. 569 , 312 A.2d 609 (1973). Petition for allowance of appeal was granted, and this appeal followed.
The Commonwealth Court held that the appellant’s appeal was not perfected because it was not
received and filed
in that court until March 8, 1973. We do not agree. When a statute or a rule requires that an appeal be
filed
within a certain period of time, we have held that an untimely
filing
will not perfect the appeal.
Luckenbauch v. Luckenbauch,
443 Pa. 417 , 281 A.2d 169 (1971).
See also Walsh v. Tucker,
454 Pa. 175 , 312 A.2d 11 (1973).
In this appeal, however, we must interpret statutory language which does not use the word “file.” Section
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427 of the Pennsylvania Workmen’s Compensation Act sets forth the statutory period within which an appeal to the Commonwealth Court must be perfected. The section provides:
“Such appeal must in all cases be
brought
within twenty days after notice of the action of the board has been served upon such party, unless the Commonwealth Court, shall, upon cause shown, extend the time herein provided for
taking
the appeal.” (Emphasis added.) Act of June 2, 1915, P.L. 736, as amended, 77 P.S. § 873.
Section 427 says nothing about
filing
an appeal. Rather, it speaks of an appeal being
brought
and the time for
taking
an appeal. In
Fritsch v. Pennsylvania Golf Club,
355 Pa. 384 , 50 A.2d 207 (1947), we noted “the Workmen’s Compensation Act must be considered as an entirety; each section thereof must be read and construed in conjunction with the others, not as a separate law unto itself. The Act is remedial, and should receive a liberal construction.”
See Patter v. Superior Steel Co.,
263 Pa. 244 , 106 A.2d 202 (1919);
Crucible Steel Co. of America v. Workmen’s Compensation Appeal Board,
9 Pa.Cmwlth. 269 , 306 A.2d 395 (1973). Thus, in order to determine when an appeal has been
brought
or
taken
within the meaning of the Act it is necessary to consider Section 427 in its statutory context.
Section 406 of the Act provides:
“All notices and copies to which any party shall be entitled under the provisions of this article shall be served
by mail,
or in such manner as the board shall direct. For the purposes of this article any notice or copy shall be deemed served
on the date when mailed,
properly stamped and addressed, and shall be presumed to have reached the party to be served; but any party may show by competent evidence that any notice or copy was not received, or that there was an unusual or unreasonable delay in its transmission through the
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mails. In any such case proper allowance shall be made for the party’s failure within the prescribed time to assert
any right given him by this act.
The department, the secretary, and every referee shall keep a careful record of the
date of mailing
every notice and copy required by this act
to
be served on the parties in interest.” (Emphasis added.) Act of June 2,1915, P.L. 736, as amended, 77 P.S. § 717.
The above section places great emphasis on
mailing
both as a method of communication and as a procedural guidepost. Under the above section the twenty days allowed under Section 427 for the “bringing” or “taking” of an appeal commences when a Board order is
mailed
because mailing constitutes service of the order even though the appellant may not receive the order for several days. In the absence of language to the contrary, it would be inconsistent to hold that the legislature intended to employ two different standards to mark the beginning and the end of the appeal period. Under Section 406, the appeal period begins when the Board
mails
its order. The end of the appeal period should likewise be the day the appellant
mails
his appeal — not when it is received and filed. Otherwise, the appellant would not have the benefit of a full twenty-day appeal period allowed in Section 427, because mail is seldom, if ever, received on the date of mailing.
Moreover, Section 406 provides that
mailing
is to be the controlling factor under
the article.
Section 406 is in Article IV of the Act as is Section 427 which speaks of an appeal being “brought” or “taken.” If
mailing
controls at all times when a party is to
receive
official papers, it should also control when that same party is
sending
official papers. We therefore conclude that Section 427 when read in its statutory context, means that an appeal has been brought or
taken
when the appeal is
mailed
on time. In this case the appeal was
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timely mailed and thus perfected within the required twenty days.
The order of the Commonwealth Court quashing appellant’s appeal is vacated and the matter remanded to the Commonwealth Court for a consideration of the merits of the case.
JONES, C. J., dissents.