C.S. and U.S. Postal Service, Post Office, Highwood, IL (Board decision, December 3, 2020)

ECAB remand decision. The Board set aside OWCP’s denial of C.S.’s occupational claim alleging arthritis in both knees and bone spurs and directed it to combine a related traumatic injury file. Acceptance 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

C.S. claimed arthritis in both knees and bone spurs from repeated walking at work. She also had a separate claim for a right knee incident. OWCP denied the occupational claim while the related traumatic claim file was absent from the record. The Board found that the files overlapped on the right knee and their evidence had to be considered together. It remanded for file combination and a new merits decision.

Decision snapshot

• Authority: Administrative combination of claims for the same body part.
• Outcome: February 4, 2020 denial set aside and remanded.
• Key point: The related right knee file held evidence needed for a full decision.

Full text (ECAB public release)

United States Department of Labor
Employees’ Compensation Appeals Board

________
)
C.S., Appellant
)
)
and ) Docket No. 20-0802
) Issued: December 3, 2020
U.S. POSTAL SERVICE, POST OFFICE,
)
Highwood, IL, Employer
)
__________ )

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

ORDER REMANDING CASE

Before:
CHRISTOPHER J. GODFREY, Deputy Chief Judge PATRICIA H. FITZGERALD, Alternate Judge
VALERIE D. EVANS-HARRELL, Alternate Judge

On February 28, 2020 appellant filed a timely appeal from a February 4, 2020 merit decision of the Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs (OWCP). The Clerk of the Appellate Boards docketed the appeal as No. 20-0802.

On November 1, 2019 appellant, then a 50-year-old city carrier, filed an occupational disease claim (Form CA-2) alleging that she developed arthritis of the knees and bone spurs due to factors of her federal employment, including a lot of walking, which required range of motion within her knees. She noted that she first became aware of her condition on February 1, 2017 and realized its relation to her federal employment on October 29, 2019. Appellant did not immediately stop work.

The record reflects that appellant filed a claim for a June 25, 2019 traumatic injury to the right knee under OWCP File No. xxxxxx656. Appellant claimed that she miss-stepped off of a curve while working. OWCP has not issued a decision in this claim.1 In a memorandum of telephone conference (Form CA-110) dated January 21, 2020, it reportedly did not address appellant’s request for right knee surgery because she had a pending occupational disease claim under the claim number currently before the Board, OWCP File No. xxxxxx258.

1
This claim is not in the record before the Board.
 Under the present claim, OWCP File No. xxxxxx258, by decision dated February 4, 2020, OWCP denied appellant’s occupational disease claim finding that the evidence of record was insufficient to establish the implicated employment factors. It noted that appellant had not responded to the November 14, 2019 development letter and it was unable to determine how walking as a city carrier contributed to her right knee osteoarthritis over a given period of time. OWCP concluded, therefore, that the requirements had not been met to establish an injury as defined by the Federal Employees’ Compensation Act.

The Board, having duly considered the matter, finds that the case is not in posture for decision.

As appellant has pursued compensation benefits under File Nos. xxxxxx258 and xxxxxx656 for the right knee, there are medical reports and factual information that bear directly on the matter before OWCP in File No. xxxxxx656.2 The record currently before the Board does not contain all of the relevant medical and factual evidence upon which the Board could adjudicate appellant’s present claim.

OWCP’s procedures provide that cases should be administratively combined when correct adjudication depends on cross-referencing between files and when two or more injuries occur to the same part of the body.3 For example, if 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, doubling is required.4 As the claims in the following OWCP files all involve appellant’s right knee, OWCP File Nos. xxxxxx258 and xxxxxx656, the Board finds that they must be administratively combined for a full and fair adjudication of appellant’s present claim. This will allow OWCP to consider all relevant claim files and accompanying evidence in developing appellant’s current occupational disease claim.

Accordingly, the Board will remand the case to OWCP to administratively combine the case records for OWCP File Nos. xxxxxx258 and xxxxxx656. Following this and other such development as deemed necessary, OWCP shall issue a de novo merit decision.

2
Supra note 1.
3
Federal (FECA) Procedure Manual, Part 2 -- Claims, File Maintenance and Management, Chapter 2.400.8(c) (February 2000).
4
R.R., Docket No. 19-0368 (issued November 26, 2019); Federal (FECA) Procedure Manual, Part 2 -- Claims, File Maintenance & Management, Chapter 2.400.8c (February 2000).

2
 IT IS HEREBY ORDERED THAT the February 4, 2020 decision of the Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs is set aside and the case is remanded for further proceedings consistent with this order of the Board.

Issued: December 3, 2020
Washington, DC

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

Patricia H. Fitzgerald, Alternate Judge
Employees’ Compensation Appeals Board

Valerie D. Evans-Harrell, Alternate Judge Employees’ Compensation Appeals Board

3