R.I. and U.S. Postal Service, Palatine Processing & Distribution Center (Board decision, July 5, 2024)

ECAB final decision dismissing an appeal. The Board dismissed docket 22-0160 because the filing sought reconsideration of an earlier Board order and was mistakenly opened as an appeal from OWCP. This order does not decide compensation eligibility. 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

A former postal worker filed paperwork after an earlier Board order. The clerk opened a new appeal docket, but the filing showed that he meant to seek reconsideration of the Board's October 2021 order. Because he had not appealed a final OWCP decision, the Board found no valid appeal before it. It dismissed the mistakenly opened docket without reaching any compensation issue.

Decision snapshot

• Authority: 20 C.F.R. § 501.3(a).
• Outcome: Appeal docket 22-0160 dismissed as opened in error.
• Key point: Board appeal review requires a final OWCP decision; a request to reconsider a Board order is a different filing.

Full text (DOL official public release)

United States Department of Labor
Employees’ Compensation Appeals Board

________
)
R.I., Appellant
)
)
and ) Docket No. 22-0160
)
Issued: July 5, 2024
U.S. POSTAL SERVICE, PALATINE
)
PROCESSING & DISTRIBUTION CENTER, )
Palatine, IL, Employer
)
__________ )

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

ORDER DISMISSING APPEAL

Before:
ALEC J. KOROMILAS, Chief Judge
PATRICIA H. FITZGERALD, Deputy Chief Judge JANICE B. ASKIN, Judge

On November 13, 2021 the Clerk of the Appellate Boards inadvertently assigned Docket No. 22-0160 to a purported appeal from a decision of the Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs (OWCP).

The Board has duly considered the matter and notes that section 501.3(a) of the Board’s Rules of Procedure provides that a “person adversely affected by a final decision of the Director [of OWCP] or his or her authorized Representative, may file for review of such decision by the Board.”1 Appellant’s application for review (AB-1) establishes that he intended to file a petition for reconsideration of the Board’s October 27, 2021 order. He did not indicate an intention to file an appeal with this Board from a final decision of OWCP. Thus it was error to docket this appeal.2

As such, the Board finds that there is no valid appeal before the Board and Docket No. 22- 0160 must be dismissed. Accordingly,

1
20 C.F.R. § 501.3(a).
2
Id. at § 501.3.
IT IS HEREBY ORDERED THAT the appeal docketed as No. 22-0160 is dismissed.

Issued: July 5, 2024
Washington, DC

Alec J. Koromilas, Chief Judge
Employees’ Compensation Appeals Board

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

Janice B. Askin, Judge
Employees’ Compensation Appeals Board

2