REISING v. ELECTRIC BOAT DIVISION, 361 CRD-2-84 (2-25-85)

KENNETH REISING, CLAIMANT-APPELLEE vs. ELECTRIC BOAT DIVISION, EMPLOYER, SELF-INSURED, RESPONDENT-APPELLANT

CASE NO. 361 CRD-2-84Workers’ Compensation Commission
FEBRUARY 25, 1985

The claimant was represented by Alan Silver, Esq., and Kenneth Bartlett, Esq.

The Respondent was represented by Peter Quay, Esq.

This Petition for Review from the November 7, Finding and Award of the Commissioner for the Second District was argued on January 25, 1985 on a Motion to Dismiss before a Compensation Review Division Panel consisting of Chairman, John Arcudi, and Commissioners Edward F. Bradley and Rhoda

ORDER OF DISMISSAL

JOHN ARCUDI, Chairman.

A Finding and Award was issued in the above-captioned matter by the Second District Commissioner November 9, 1984. A Petition to Review that Finding and was received in the Second District Office November 16, 1984. Section 31-301-2[1] of the Commission Regulations provides that an appellant must file Reasons of Appeal within ten days of the Petition for Review. Such Reasons of Appeal therefore come within the appellate jurisdiction of the Compensation Review Division.

The appellant had not filed Reasons of Appeal with the Compensation Review Division by November 26, 1984 the tenth day after the date of filing the appeal. Instead on November 28, 1984 the appellant respondent filed a Motion For Extension of Time to file Reasons of Appeal with the Second District, not with the Compensation Review Division as the Regulation requires. But even if the Second District November 28 receipt of the Motion can be considered to have been a filing with the Compensation Review Division, such filing was still two days late.

Appellant’s brief does not address at all the tardiness of the Motion. Certainly if the Motion for Extension of Time to file a pleading had been made before the filing deadline for the pleading itself, then appellant’s arguments might well have been valid, even if the Motion had been filed in the Second District.

But given the actual circumstances, claimant appellee’s Motion to Dismiss the Appeal for failure to file Reasons of Appeal within the ten days of the Petition to Review must be granted.

The appeal is dismissed.

Commissioners Bradley and Loeb concur with this order.

[1] Sec. 31-301-2. Reasons of Appeal. Within ten days after the filing of the appeal petition, the appellant shall file with the compensation review division his reasons of appeal. Where the reasons of appeal present an issue of fact for determination by the division, issue must be joined by a pleading filed in accordance with the rules applicable in ordinary civil actions; but where the issue is to be determined upon the basis of the finding of the commissioner and the evidence before him, no pleadings by the appellee are necessary.