G.W. and U.S. Postal Service, Post Office, Houston, TX (Board decision, April 19, 2016)

ECAB remand decision. The Board set aside OWCP’s July 31, 2014 schedule award decision and remanded G.W.’s claim for review of combined case files. The amount of any additional 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.W., a postal carrier, sought a schedule award for a right shoulder condition. OWCP reduced the additional award because she had previously received an award for right carpal tunnel syndrome. The Board could not review that calculation because the file for the earlier award was missing from the record before it. It set aside OWCP’s decision and directed the agency to combine the related files, review the evidence, and issue a new decision.

Decision snapshot

• Authority: Federal (FECA) Procedure Manual, Part 2, Chapter 2.400.8(c)(1).
• Outcome: July 31, 2014 schedule award decision set aside; case remanded for combined-file review.
• Key point: The earlier award file was needed to assess the deduction from the current award.

Full text (ECAB public release)

United States Department of Labor
Employees’ Compensation Appeals Board

________
)
G.W., Appellant
)
)
and ) Docket No. 15-0654
) Issued: April 19, 2016
U.S. POSTAL SERVICE, POST OFFICE,
)
Houston, 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
PATRICIA H. FITZGERALD, Deputy Chief Judge COLLEEN DUFFY KIKO, Judge

On January 16, 2015 appellant filed a timely appeal from a July 31, 2014 merit decision of the Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs (OWCP) concerning a schedule award claim for her shoulder and cervical spine conditions. The Board assigned Docket No. 15-0654.1

In the July 31, 2014 decision, an OWCP hearing representative awarded 11 percent permanent impairment for the right shoulder condition and 0 percent permanent impairment for the cervical condition. The hearing representative noted, however, that as appellant had already received 6 percent permanent impairment for right carpal tunnel syndrome, under File No. xxxxxx112, appellant was awarded only an additional 10 percent impairment for the right upper extremity.2

1
By order dated July 24, 2015, the Board denied appellant’s request for oral argument.
2
On November 7, 2011 appellant, then a 55-year-old carrier technician, filed an occupational disease claim alleging that she experienced pain in her right shoulder and cervical spine as a result of her employment. She first became aware of her condition and realized it resulted from her employment on March 1, 2011. OWCP accepted appellant’s claim for right shoulder sprain, right shoulder impingement, and supraspinatus tear and cervical disc degeneration. The Board has duly considered the matter and concludes that the case is not in posture for 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.3 As OWCP has reduced the current award based on a rating she previously received for right carpal tunnel syndrome, it 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 pertinent to her request for a schedule award for her right shoulder condition, the Board is unable to properly address and adjudicate the current schedule award issue. On remand, OWCP should combine the present case record, File No. xxxxxx728, with File No. xxxxxx112. After combining these two case records, it should consider the evidence contained in the combined case record and, following any necessary further development, issue an appropriate decision. Accordingly, the July 31, 2014 decision affirming the additional impairment of 10 percent for the right upper extremity should be set aside.

IT IS HEREBY ORDERED THAT the decision of the Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs dated July 31, 2014 is set aside and the case remanded for further proceedings consistent with this order of the Board.

Issued: April 19, 2016
Washington, DC

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

Patricia H. Fitzgerald, Deputy Chief Judge Employees’ Compensation Appeals Board

Colleen Duffy Kiko, Judge
Employees’ Compensation Appeals Board

3
Federal (FECA) Procedure Manual, Part 2 -- Claims, Doubling Case Files, Chapter 2.400.8(c)(1) (February 2000).

2