HARRISBURG – The claims of a daycare teacher injured in her place of employment have survived an appeal to the Superior Court of Pennsylvania and have also yielded an award of attorney’s fees.
A Nov. 13 ruling from the Superior Court permits Roberta Allen to have the settlement pertaining to her injuries enforced, along with a remanding of proceedings to the trial court and an award of attorney’s fees.
Allen initially sued Valerietina L. Colbert, Latania L. Colbert and Wee R. Family Child Care in the Philadelphia County Court of Court Common Pleas in October 2017 for negligence, after she was injured on the job due to one of the basement steps collapsing.
As the defendants possessed no worker’s compensation coverage, Allen was able to obtain funds from the Uninsured Employers Guaranty Fund (UEGF) to cover the costs of her injuries, though not fully.
Allen obtained default judgments against the defendants, but later stipulated to the opening thereof by the trial court. The case was scheduled for arbitration, but was settled by the parties on Sept. 7, 2018 prior to the hearing.
After later disputes over the validity of the settlement, the trial court entered an order on Oct. 2, 2019, finding that the parties had entered a valid and binding agreement on Sept. 8, 2018, that the terms of the agreement included that the defendants would pay $3,000 in twelve monthly installments of $250 – and that, if a payment was missed, Allen had the right to seek an additional $5,000 plus attorney fees.
In reviewing the case on appeal to the Superior Court, Judge Mary Jane Bowes said Colbert offers “only scant, cursory argument in support of her appellate issues, none of which even arguably touches upon fraud, accident, or mutual mistake.”
“Our conclusion [is] that none of Colbert’s claims of error has merit,” Bowes said.
Bowes added that Colbert’s argument of Worker’s Compensation Act immunity did not apply and that Colbert “freely acknowledges that the prior recovery Allen received was from the fund for uninsured employers.”
“Furthermore, as the trial court noted, Allen’s UEGF recovery was insufficient to compensate her for the work-related injuries she sustained. Accordingly, there is no basis to conclude that any double recovery will result in this case,” Bowes said.
“The record in this case reveals that Colbert agreed to settle Allen’s claim more than a year ago, promised again and again to fulfill her promise to pay the settlement, yet forced Allen to appear with her attorney for multiple enforcement proceedings, and then defend against this cursorily-argued and substantively-meritless appeal in an effort to further delay payment.”
Allen was awarded costs of the appeal, namely her attorney fees, and the case was remanded for the trial court to determine the amount pursuant to Pennsylvania Rules of Appellate Procedure 2744.
Superior Court of Pennsylvania case 3231 EDA 2019
Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas case 171000328
From the Pennsylvania Record: Reach Courts Reporter Nicholas Malfitano at nick.malfitano@therecordinc.com