The 2008 Commonwealth Court case of Romanowski v. Workers' Compensation Appeal Board (Precision Coil Processing), 944 A.2d 127 (2008), defined the appropriate limitations period applicable to a claimant seeking a reinstatement of disability benefits after the expiration of the 500-week period under Section 413(a) of the Workers' Compensation Act. The court analyzed the section and concluded that it actually contained two provisions of limitation. The first limitation provision allows a claimant to file a petition to modify or reinstate benefits stemming from a notice of compensation payable within three years of the most recent payment of compensation. The second provision suggests that where benefits have been suspended, a claimant may seek further benefits by filing a petition within 500 weeks of the suspension, a duration of time also known as "the period for which compensation for partial disability is payable," which comes from Section 306(b)(1) of the act.
The essential point of Romanowski was that a claimant's failure to timely challenge a suspension of benefits within the applicable 500-week limitation period would bar any claims under Section 413(a). Moreover, the first limitation provision of Section 413(a), which allows a claimant to file a petition to modify or reinstate benefits within three years of the most recent payment of compensation, cannot be "stacked" on the second. Therefore, the expiration of the 500-week period following a suspension of benefits operates as a bar to a subsequent modification or reinstatement petition. While the question was not addressed as to whether a claimant with wage loss throughout the 500-week period had three years from the end of that timeframe to file a petition, it seemed to be a logical progression.
