C.S. and Department of Health and Human Services, National Disaster Medical Services, Bethesda, MD (Board decision, June 26, 2015)

ECAB final decision. The Board granted a petition for reconsideration to correct the date of a prior Board merits decision and ordered its January 21, 2015 decision reissued. The companion reissued decision affirms OWCP’s refusal to reopen the claim. A party may petition the Board for reconsideration within 30 days of issuance unless the order specifies another period, under 20 C.F.R. § 501.7(a).

Plain-English summary

C.S.’s counsel identified a wrong year for an earlier Board decision in the jurisdictional paragraph of the Board’s January 21, 2015 ruling. The Board agreed that the date should read April 24, 2014 and granted reconsideration to correct it. It directed reissue of the decision with that correction. The order did not change the ruling affirming OWCP’s refusal to reopen the underlying claim.

Decision snapshot

• Authority: The Board’s error of fact or law standard, citing Virginia Faye Gabbert, 21 ECAB 149 (1969).
• Outcome: Petition granted for a date correction; corrected decision ordered reissued.
• Key point: Reconsideration corrected a factual error without changing the underlying disposition.

Full text (ECAB public release)

United States Department of Labor
Employees’ Compensation Appeals Board

________
)
C.S., Appellant
)
)
and ) Docket No. 14-1994
) Issued: June 26, 2015
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH & HUMAN
)
SERVICES, NATIONAL DISASTER MEDICAL
)
SERVICES, Bethesda, MD, Employer
)
__________ )

Appearances: Case Submitted on the Record
Alan J. Shapiro, Esq., for the appellant
Office of Solicitor, for the Director

ORDER GRANTING PETITION FOR RECONSIDERATION

Before:
CHRISTOPHER J. GODFREY, Chief Judge
ALEC J. KOROMILAS, Alternate Judge
JAMES A. HAYNES, Alternate Judge

On January 21, 2015 the Board issued a decision and order in the above-entitled case. By that decision, the Board affirmed the Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs’ (OWCP) August 21, 2014 decision, finding that it properly declined to reopen appellant’s claim for review of the merits.

Counsel filed a petition for reconsideration on February 16, 2015 and requested that the Board correct a typographical error in the first paragraph of the decision. He noted that the Board had listed the date of the last merit Board decision as April 24, 2013 rather than April 24, 2014.

The Clerk of the Board served the Director of OWCP with a copy of appellant’s petition for reconsideration on March 20, 2015. On March 20, 2015 the Director filed an answer stating that he had no comment and requesting that the Board rule justly on the petition.

The Clerk of the Board served counsel with a copy of the Director’s answer to his petition for reconsideration on March 20, 2015. Counsel did not respond within the time allotted. The Board has duly considered the matter and notes that the standard for granting a petition for reconsideration is that the Board’s decision contains an error of fact or law warranting further consideration.1 In the petition for reconsideration, counsel has submitted evidence of an error of fact in the January 21, 2015 decision in that the Board misstated the date of its last merit decision as April 24, 2013 in the jurisdictional paragraph. The Board found and referred to April 24, 2014, as the date of the last merit decision in the remainder of the decision.

Consequently, appellant’s petition for reconsideration should be granted and the decision and order docketed as No. 14-1994 should be reissued with a corrected date of April 24, 2014 as the date of the last merit Board decision in the jurisdictional paragraph.

IT IS HEREBY ORDERED THAT appellant’s petition for reconsideration is granted.

Issued: June 26, 2015
Washington, DC

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

Alec J. Koromilas, Alternate Judge
Employees' Compensation Appeals Board

James A. Haynes, Alternate Judge
Employees' Compensation Appeals Board

1
Virginia Faye Gabbert (Byron Lowell Gabbert), 21 ECAB 149 (1969).

2