A.B. and U.S. Postal Service, Bulk Mail Center, Jersey City, NJ (Board decision, December 24, 2014)

ECAB remand decision. The Board set aside OWCP’s May 28, 2014 denial of A.B.’s occupational disease claim and directed OWCP to assemble the related case records and decide the claim again. Whether her carpal tunnel condition is compensable remains unresolved. Under 20 C.F.R. § 501.6(d), this Board order becomes final 30 days after issuance. A party may petition the Board for reconsideration within 30 days unless this order specifies another period, under 20 C.F.R. § 501.7(a).

Plain-English summary

A.B., a postal distribution clerk, claimed that repetitive work and a separate left wrist injury caused or worsened bilateral carpal tunnel syndrome. OWCP denied her occupational disease claim for lack of a sufficient medical link. The Board found that evidence about her wrist surgery was held in the file for the separate traumatic injury, so the record before it was incomplete. It set aside the denial and directed OWCP to combine and reconstruct the records before issuing a new decision.

Decision snapshot

• Authority: OWCP procedure for combining related claim files, cited in the order.
• Outcome: May 28, 2014 denial set aside; claim remanded for record assembly and a new decision.
• Key point: OWCP needed the related traumatic injury file to evaluate the occupational disease claim fairly.

Full text (ECAB public release)

United States Department of Labor
Employees’ Compensation Appeals Board

________
)
A.B., Appellant
)
)
and ) Docket No. 14-1513
) Issued: December 24, 2014
U.S. POSTAL SERVICE, BULK MAIL
)
CENTER, Jersey City, NJ, Employer
)
__________ )

Appearances: Case Submitted on the Record
James D. Muirhead, Esq., for the appellant
Office of Solicitor, for the Director

ORDER REMANDING CASE

Before:
CHRISTOPHER J. GODFREY, Chief Judge
COLLEEN DUFFY KIKO, Judge
PATRICIA HOWARD FITZGERALD, Judge

On June 23, 2014 appellant, through her attorney, filed an appeal from a May 28, 2014 decision of the Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs (OWCP). The Board assigned Docket No. 14-1513.

Appellant, a 46-year-old distribution clerk, filed an occupational disease claim on May 9, 2012 alleging that she developed bilateral carpal tunnel syndrome. She noted that she had sustained a traumatic injury in February 2012 and that her physician had subsequently diagnosed her with bilateral carpal tunnel syndrome based upon an electromyographic study. OWCP assigned this claim File No. xxxxxx573. The record also reflects that appellant had filed a traumatic injury claim due to an injury on February 7, 2012, which was accepted for a left elbow contusion and left wrist sprain. OWCP assigned this claim File No. xxxxxx324.

OWCP denied appellant’s occupational disease claim by decision dated August 9, 2012 on the grounds that she had not submitted sufficient medical evidence to establish a causal relationship between duties of her employment and her diagnosed condition. Appellant, through her attorney, requested a hearing before the Branch of Hearings and Review on August 17, 2012. By decision dated February 20, 2013, an OWCP hearing representative affirmed its prior decision, finding that she had not submitted sufficient evidence to establish causal relationship. On December 5, 2013 appellant, through her attorney, requested reconsideration. By decision dated May 28, 2014, OWCP reviewed the merits of her case and denied her claim, finding that she had not established causal relationship.

In a report dated November 20, 2013, Dr. Richard A. Boiardo, a Board-certified orthopedic surgeon, stated that “as a direct and causal result of the 27 years of repetitive motion exacerbated by an injury on February 7, 2012 to the left wrist, the patient underwent carpal tunnel release on the left wrist.” He diagnosed appellant with bilateral carpal tunnel syndrome and bilateral De Quervain’s tenosynovitis. However, the record does not contain the operative report for her left carpal tunnel release. On appeal, appellant’s attorney noted that the procedure took place on May 23, 2013 and was filed under appellant’s other case number.

The record on appeal establishes that File No. xxxxxx324 contains evidence pertinent to the present claim under File No. xxxxxx573. As Dr. Boiardo’s opinion on causal relationship between appellant’s carpal tunnel syndrome and duties of her employment was based in part on a theory of exacerbation of an occupational illness due to a traumatic event on February 7, 2012, and as OWCP found Dr. Boiardo’s opinion as insufficiently rationalized, medical evidence relating to a left carpal tunnel release procedure under claim File No. xxxxxx324 would be relevant to the present claim.

The Board, therefore, finds that the appeal docketed as No. 14-1513 is currently not in posture for decision. Because the record is incomplete, the Board is unable to render a fully informed adjudication of the case. OWCP procedures require that cases should be combined where proper adjudication depends on cross-referencing evidence between files, such as when “a new injury case is reported for an employee who previously filed an injury claim for a similar condition or the same part of the body.”1 In the instant appeal, for a full and fair adjudication, appellant’s occupational injury claim must be combined with her traumatic injury claim pertaining to a February 7, 2012 incident. Accordingly, the case is remanded to OWCP for reconstruction and proper assemblage of the case record, followed by issuance of an appropriate decision.

1
Federal (FECA) Procedure Manual, Part 2 -- Claims, File Maintenance and Management, Chapter 2.400.8(c)(1) (February 2000). See also O.V., Docket No. 14-997 (issued September 29, 2014); N.L., Docket No. 14-864 (issued September 26, 2014).

2
 IT IS HEREBY ORDERED THAT the May 28, 2014 decision of the Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs is set aside and the case is remanded for further action consistent with this order of the Board.

Issued: December 24, 2014
Washington, DC

Christopher J. Godfrey, Chief Judge
Employees’ Compensation Appeals Board

Colleen Duffy Kiko, Judge
Employees’ Compensation Appeals Board

Patricia Howard Fitzgerald, Judge
Employees’ Compensation Appeals Board

3