G.J. and Department of Justice, Bureau of Prisons, Field Acquisition Office, Grand Prairie, TX (Board decision, March 2, 2015)

ECAB remand decision. The Board set aside OWCP’s August 5, 2014 schedule award decision and returned the claim to combine related files. The proper additional leg impairment 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

G.J. received an additional left-leg schedule award calculated using a prior award in another claim file. OWCP and its medical adviser relied on that other file, but it was absent from the Board’s record. The Board ordered OWCP to combine the files and issue a new decision from a complete record. It also noted that the impairment guides bar combining a complex regional pain syndrome rating with another method for the same leg, an issue for the new decision.

Decision snapshot

• Authority: OWCP claim-file combination procedure and the A.M.A. Guides’ complex regional pain syndrome rule.
• Outcome: Schedule award decision set aside; related files to be combined and award reconsidered.
• Key point: The Board could not assess an award based on evidence absent from its record.

Full text (ECAB public release)

United States Department of Labor
Employees’ Compensation Appeals Board

________
)
G.J., Appellant
)
)
and ) Docket No. 14-1894
) Issued: March 2, 2015
DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, BUREAU OF
)
PRISONS, FIELD ACQUISITION OFFICE,
)
Grand Prairie, TX, Employer
)
__________ )

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

ORDER REMANDING CASE

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

On August 27, 2014 appellant filed an application for review of an August 5, 2014 decision of the Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs (OWCP) in which an OWCP hearing representative affirmed a November 22, 2013 schedule award decision. The appeal was docketed as 14-1894 and adjudicated by OWCP under file number xxxxxx940.1

The Board has duly considered the matter and concludes that this case is not in posture for decision. On November 5, 2013 appellant submitted a schedule award claim and an October 13, 2013 report from Dr. Christine Huynh, a Board-certified physiatrist, who advised that appellant had a seven percent whole person impairment under Table 16-15, Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) of the Lower Extremity, of the sixth edition of the American Medical Association, Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment (hereinafter A.M.A., Guides).2 Following receipt of the schedule award claim and Dr. Huynh’s report, OWCP

1
On May 20, 2011 appellant, a contract and procurement officer, injured his left leg while in travel status when he tripped over a curb. OWCP initially accepted a contusion of the left lower leg. After further medical development on September 4, 2012 OWCP additionally accepted reflex sympathetic dystrophy of the left lower limb; sprain of unspecified sites, left knee and leg; traumatic compartment syndrome of left leg. 2 A.M.A., Guides (6th ed. 2008). forwarded the record with a statement of accepted facts to Dr. Ronald Blum, an OWCP medical adviser, who is Board-certified in orthopedic surgery. The statement of accepted facts indicated that under file number xxxxxx132 appellant had been granted a schedule award for 20 percent left leg impairment on October 24, 2006. In his November 14, 2013 report, Dr. Blum noted appellant’s receipt of the prior schedule award and referred to his report dated October 5, 2006, found in that record. He indicated that, under Table 16-15, appellant was entitled to seven percent left leg impairment, rather than the whole person impairment found by Dr. Huynh, and advised that the seven percent impairment should be combined with the 20 percent previously awarded under file number xxxxxx132, which would yield an additional five percent impairment.

In its November 22, 2013 schedule award decision, granting appellant an additional five percent impairment, OWCP referenced the prior schedule award, issued under file number xxxxxx132. In the August 5, 2014 decision, an OWCP hearing representative described the events that caused an April 11, 2006 injury, adjudicated under file number xxxxxx132, and further referenced elements of that claim. The hearing representative indicated that OWCP “may wish to possibly consider doubling the instant case with file number xxxxxx132.”

It is thus apparent that both Dr. Blum, OWCP medical adviser, and OWCP hearing representative had access to both the files for claim numbers xxxxxx132 and xxxxxx940. The Board does not have access to the former. For the Board to conduct a full and fair adjudication of an appeal, the case record must be complete and contain all evidence relied upon by OWCP in reaching its decision.3

Hence, the Board finds that this case is not in posture for a decision as the record before the Board is incomplete and would not permit an informed adjudication of the case by the Board. The case must therefore be remanded to OWCP to obtain OWCP file number xxxxxx132 and combine it with the instant case, OWCP file number xxxxxx940, and for further reconstruction and development deemed necessary, to be followed by an appropriate de novo decision on appellant’s schedule award claim.4

3
Lon E. Grinage, 57 ECAB 177 (2005). See Federal (FECA) Procedure Manual, Part 2 -- Claims, File Maintenance and Management, Chapter 2.400.8(c) (February 2000) (cases should be doubled when correct adjudication of the issues depends on frequent cross-reference between files). 4 The Board also notes that section 16.5 of the A.M.A., Guides indicates that CRPS impairment is a “stand alone” approach and if impairment is assigned for CRPS, the CRPS impairment cannot be combined with any other approach for the same extremity under Chapter 16, The Lower Extremities. A.M.A., Guides, supra note 2 at 540.

2
 IT IS HEREBY ORDERED THAT the August 5, 2014 decision of the Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs is set aside and the case remanded to OWCP for further proceedings consistent with this order of the Board.

Issued: March 2, 2015
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