An Employee is required to give "timely" notice of a work injury to the Employer

An Employee is required to give "timely" notice of a work injury to the Employer 

The Employee notice of the occurrence of a work-related injury is an essential element of one's burden of proving a compensable claim.

Section 311 of the Act provides " no compensation shall be due until such notice be given and unless such notice be given within 120 days after the occurrence of the injury, no compensation shall be allowed.

Recently a question arose as to the calculation of the 120 day time period for proper notice of injury to the employer. In Holy Redeemer Hosp. Systems v. WCAB (Figueroa), Pa. Cmwlth. No. 372 C.D. 2020, December 31, 2020, the Commonwealth Court affirmed the decision of the WCAB. The WCAB affirmed the decision of the WCJ that Claimant sustained her burden of proof of all of the elements of her claim petition, but the WCB reveresed the conclusion of the WCJ that Claimant failed to provided timely notice of a work injury to the Employer.

The pertinent facts reflect the Claimant worked on July 25, 2015, as an emergency room nurse. She experienced significant pain in her leg, which increased over the course of her work shift.  She took off her next scheduled work day and visited her physician . He took Claimant off work. On Monday November 23, 2015, Claimant notified the Employer that she sustained a work injury on July 25, 2015. 

She gave notice of her work injury on the 121^st day after her work injury, which was a Monday.  The Employer issued a NTCP, followed by a Notice Stopping an a Notice of Denial.

This legal issue arose as Monday July 25, 2015 was the 121st day after her alleged work injury. The 120th day fell on a Sunday. Why was Claimant's notice of a work injury on Monday considered "timely" ? Section 1908 of the Statutory Construction Act of 1972, provides the correct answer to this question. which states as follows:

 "When any period of time is referred to in any statute, such period in all cases, except as otherwise provided in section 1909 of this title  (relating  to  publication  for successive  weeks)  and  section 1910 of this title (relating to computation of months) shall be so computed as to exclude the first and include the last day of such period.  Whenever the last day of any such period shall fall on Saturday or Sunday, or any day made a legal holiday by the laws of this Commonwealth or of the United States, such day shall be omitted from the computation.

In the case sub judice, when the 120^th day to give notice of her work injury under Section 311 of the Act falls on a Sunday, her notice of injury on Monday was timely. Employer's appeal was limited to the notice issue. The Court rejected the Employer argument that the language of Section 311 is not ambiguous, therefore the WCAB erred by applying the Statutory Construction Act.