S.P. and Department of Veterans Affairs, Bob Stump VA Medical Center, Prescott, AZ (Board decision, January 18, 2024)

ECAB final decision. The Board dismissed a docket opened from a form on which S.P. requested an OWCP oral hearing, not a Board appeal. It found no intent to appeal a final OWCP decision. 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 VA employee submitted an appeal request form with the box for an OWCP oral hearing selected. The Board’s clerk inadvertently assigned the form a Board appeal docket. The Board found that she had not requested its review of an OWCP decision and dismissed the docket. It did not address the merits of any compensation claim.

Decision snapshot

• Authority: ECAB appeal rule, 20 C.F.R. § 501.3(a); reconsideration rule, 20 C.F.R. § 501.7(a).
• Outcome: Appeal No. 23-1158 dismissed.
• Key point: Selecting an OWCP hearing did not initiate a Board appeal.

Full text (ECAB public release)

United States Department of Labor
Employees’ Compensation Appeals Board

________
)
S.P., Appellant
)
)
and ) Docket No. 23-1158
)
Issued: January 18, 2024
DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS,
)
BOB STUMP DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS )
AFFAIRS MEDICAL CENTER, Prescott, AZ, )
Employer
)
__________ )

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

ORDER DISMISSING APPEAL

Before:
JANICE B. ASKIN, Judge
VALERIE D. EVANS-HARRELL, Alternate Judge JAMES D. McGINLEY, Alternate Judge

On September 5, 2023 the Clerk of the Appellate Boards inadvertently assigned Docket No. 23-1158 to a purported appeal from a decision of the Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs (OWCP).

The Board, having duly considered this matter, 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 checked the box on an OWCP “APPEAL REQUEST FORM,” indicating that she was requesting an oral hearing before a representative of OWCP’s Branch of Hearings and Review. She did not state any factual and legal argument in favor of a Board appeal or indicate that she was in fact filing an appeal. 2 Thus, the Board concludes that it was not appellant’s intention to file an appeal from a final decision of OWCP. The Board therefore finds that neither a “person adversely affected” by a final OWCP decision, nor an “authorized Representative,” has

1
20 C.F.R. § 501.3(a).
2
Id. at § 501.3.

filed an appeal of a final decision issued by OWCP. As such, there is no valid appeal before the Board, and Docket No. 23-1158 must be dismissed. Accordingly,

IT IS HEREBY ORDERED THAT the appeal docketed as Docket No. 23-1158 is dismissed.

Issued: January 18, 2024
Washington, DC

Janice B. Askin, Judge
Employees’ Compensation Appeals Board

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

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

2