L.C. and U.S. Postal Service, Wheaton Post Office, Silver Spring, MD (Board decision, June 9, 2023)

ECAB remand decision. The Board set aside OWCP's November 29, 2022 claim denial and ordered it to combine related claim files before a new decision. The occupational disease claim 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

A postal window clerk sought compensation for fibromyalgia, fatigue, and pain she attributed to earlier injury and work duties. OWCP denied the claim after finding insufficient evidence that accepted work factors caused the diagnosed conditions. Its hearing representative said three earlier back injury files should be combined with the current file, but that had not happened. The Board set aside the denial and ordered OWCP to combine the files and issue a new decision. It did not resolve medical causation.

Decision snapshot

• Authority: FECA Procedure Manual file combination rule, Chapter 2.400.8(c).
• Outcome: Claim denial set aside and remanded for file combination.
• Key point: OWCP must combine the related injury records before deciding this claim.

Full text (ECAB public release)

United States Department of Labor
Employees’ Compensation Appeals Board

________
)
L.C., Appellant
)
)
and ) Docket No. 23-0257
)
Issued: June 9, 2023
U.S. POSTAL SERVICE, WHEATON POST )
OFFICE, Silver Spring, MD, Employer )
__________ )

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

ORDER REMANDING CASE

Before:
ALEC J. KOROMILAS, Chief Judge
JANICE B. ASKIN, Judge
JAMES D. McGINLEY, Alternate Judge

On December 12, 2022 appellant filed a timely appeal from a November 29, 2022 merit decision of the Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs (OWCP). The Clerk of the Appellate Boards docketed the appeal as No. 23-0257.

On March 2, 2022 appellant, then a 38-year-old window clerk, filed an occupational disease claim (Form CA-2) alleging that a prior injury and factors of her federal employment, including lifting and sitting, as well as stress in the work environment, resulted in fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue and pain. She stopped work on February 15, 2022.

By decision dated May 27, 2022, OWCP denied appellant’s claim, finding that she had not submitted sufficient evidence to establish that the work factors alleged occurred as described.

Appellant requested a hearing before a representative of OWCP’s Branch of Hearings and Review on June 7, 2022.

By decision dated November 29, 2022, OWCP affirmed the May 27, 2022 decision, modifying the basis of denial to insufficient evidence to establish a causal relationship between accepted work factors and her diagnosed conditions. The hearing representative found that, “Since [appellant] has filed previous claims for back injuries, it would be appropriate to combine case file numbers [xxxxxx]347, [xxxxxx]689, and [xxxxxx]089 with case file number [xxxxxx]679 so a complete and accurate history is available.
The Board, having duly considered this matter, finds that this case is not in posture for decision.

OWCP’s procedures provide that cases should be administratively combined when correct adjudication depends on frequent cross-referencing between files and where two or more injuries occur to the same part of the body. 1 This will allow OWCP to consider all relevant claim files in developing this schedule award claim.2 In the present claim, the hearing representative recommended combination of OWCP File Nos. xxxxxx347, xxxxxx 689, and xxxxxx089 with the present case file. However, the administrative combination of these files did not occur.

Accordingly, the Board will remand the case to OWCP to administratively combine OWCP File Nos. xxxx347, xxxxxx689, and xxxxxx089 with OWCP File No. xxxxxx679, the subject of the present appeal. Following this and other such further development as deemed necessary, OWCP shall issue a de novo merit decision.

IT IS HEREBY ORDERED THAT the November 29, 2022 decision of the Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs is set aside and the case is remanded to OWCP for further proceedings consistent with this order of the Board.

Issued: June 9, 2023
Washington, DC

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

Janice B. Askin, Judge
Employees’ Compensation Appeals Board

James D. McGinley, Alternate Judge
Employees’ Compensation Appeals Board

1
Federal (FECA) Procedure Manual, Part 2 -- Claims, File Maintenance and Management, Chapter 2.400.8(c) (February 2000).
2
Id.

2