J.B. and U.S. Postal Service, Processing & Distribution Center, Colorado Springs, CO (Board decision, June 25, 2013)

ECAB remand decision and order. The Board set aside OWCP’s August 28, 2012 award decision and directed it to combine J.B.’s related right arm claim files. Whether J.B. qualifies for a further award remains unresolved. A party may petition the Board for reconsideration within 30 days of issuance unless this order specifies another period, under 20 C.F.R. § 501.7(a).

Plain-English summary

J.B. sought a schedule award for accepted right carpal tunnel syndrome. OWCP found five percent impairment from that condition but denied an additional award because a separate claim had already yielded a 17 percent right arm award for a shoulder condition. The Board found that OWCP relied on the earlier file without including it in the record for review. It set aside the denial and ordered OWCP to combine the files and decide the award claim anew.

Decision snapshot

• Authority: OWCP procedure for combining claim files involving similar injuries.
• Outcome: August 28, 2012 decision set aside; right upper extremity award claim remanded.
• Key point: The prior shoulder award file had to be available before OWCP could resolve the current carpal tunnel award request.

Full text (ECAB public release)

United States Department of Labor
Employees’ Compensation Appeals Board

________
)
J.B., Appellant
)
)
and ) Docket No. 13-63
) Issued: June 25, 2013
U.S. POSTAL SERVICE, PROCESSING &
)
DISTRIBUTION CENTER,
)
Colorado Springs, CO, Employer
)
__________ )

Appearances: Case Submitted on the Record
Appellant, pro se
Office of Solicitor, for the Director

ORDER REMANDING CASE

Before:
RICHARD J. DASCHBACH, Chief Judge
COLLEEN DUFFY KIKO, Judge
PATRICIA HOWARD FITZGERALD, Judge

JURISDICTION

On October 10, 2012 appellant filed a timely appeal from an August 28, 2012 merit decision of the Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs (OWCP) concerning a schedule award claim for his right upper extremity. The Board assigned Docket No. 13-63.

In an August 28, 2012 decision, OWCP explained that, as appellant was previously awarded a schedule award for 17 percent impairment of the right upper extremity under File No. xxxxxx607 and, as the medical evidence demonstrated five percent impairment of the right upper extremity under the current File No. xxxxxx965, appellant was “not entitled to any additional or increase (sic) impairment for that extremity.”

The Board has duly considered the matter and concludes that the case is not in posture for decision. OWCP accepted that appellant sustained right carpal tunnel syndrome in the performance of duty. Right carpal tunnel release surgery was authorized by OWCP and performed on January 6, 2011.1

1
On October 23, 2010 appellant, then a 77-year-old maintenance mechanic, filed an occupational disease claim alleging that on September 22, 2010 he first realized that his carpal tunnel syndrome was employment related. OWCP accepted the claim for right carpal tunnel syndrome.
The Board has duly considered the matter and concludes that the case is not in posture for a decision. OWCP procedures provide that cases should be doubled when a new injury is reported for an employee who previously filed an injury claim for a similar condition and further indicates that the cases should be doubled as soon as the need to do so becomes apparent.2 As it referenced the schedule award appellant received in a prior claim for an injury pertaining to his right upper extremity,3 OWCP should have doubled the case files in accordance with its procedures. As the record before the Board does not contain evidence from the prior claim referenced by OWCP and used by it in denying appellant the five percent impairment found by OWCP’s medical adviser for his right carpal tunnel syndrome, the Board is unable to properly address and adjudicate the schedule award issue. On remand, OWCP should combine the present case record, File No. xxxxxx965, with File No. xxxxxx607. After combining these two case records, OWCP should consider the evidence contained in the combined case record and, following any necessary further development, issue a de novo decision. Accordingly, the January 29, 2010 decision denying an additional schedule award for a permanent impairment of the right upper extremity should be set aside.

IT IS HEREBY ORDERED THAT the decision of the Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs dated August 28, 2012 is set aside and the case remanded for further proceedings consistent with this order of the Board.

Issued: June 25, 2013
Washington, DC

Richard J. Daschbach, Chief Judge
Employees’ Compensation Appeals Board

Colleen Duffy Kiko, Judge
Employees’ Compensation Appeals Board

Patricia Howard Fitzgerald, Judge
Employees’ Compensation Appeals Board

2
Federal (FECA) Procedure Manual, Part 2 -- Claims, Doubling Case Files, Chapter 2.400.8(c)(1) (February 2000).
3
The record reveals that appellant received a schedule award under File No. xxxxxx607 for a 17 percent impairment of the right upper extremity. OWCP noted that the accepted condition under File No. xxxxxx607 was for right shoulder impingement.

2