J.S. and U.S. Postal Service, Festus Post Office (Board decision, June 25, 2026)

ECAB remand decision. The Board set aside OWCP's December 3, 2025 decision and remanded for combined review of two right knee claim files. 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). FECA compensation decisions are generally not subject to court review under 5 U.S.C. § 8128(b).

Plain-English summary

A rural carrier sought to expand an accepted right knee injury claim after stepping in a hole at work. Another claim file also concerned her right knee, but the Board could not review its evidence. It directed OWCP to combine that file with the current claim and issue a new decision. A later nonmerits decision became moot.

Decision snapshot

• Authority: Federal Employees' Compensation Act, 5 U.S.C. § 8101 et seq.; 20 C.F.R. §§ 501.2(c), 501.3.
• Outcome: Expansion decision set aside; related right knee files must be combined.
• Key point: The Board needed the earlier knee file to review the proposed expansion fairly.

Full text (ECAB public release)

United States Department of Labor
Employees’ Compensation Appeals Board

________
)
J.S., Appellant
)
) Docket No. 26-0362
and ) Issued: June 25, 2026
)
U.S. POSTAL SERVICE, FESTUS POST
)
OFFICE, Festus, MO, 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
VALERIE D. EVANS-HARRELL, Alternate Judge

On March 2, 2026 appellant filed a timely appeal from a December 3, 2025 merit decision and a January 13, 2026 nonmerit decision of the Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs (OWCP). The Clerk of the Appellate Boards docketed the appeal as No. 26-0362.

On October 23, 2024 appellant, then a 43-year-old rural carrier, filed a traumatic injury claim (Form CA-1) alleging that on October 17, 2024 she sustained a sore and swollen right knee and tight and swollen right calf after she stepped in a mole hole when walking through a yard while in the performance of duty. She stopped work on October 17, 2024, and returned to work on December 4, 2024. OWCP initially accepted the claim for sprain of unspecified site of right knee, initial encounter; and other meniscus derangements, unspecified meniscus, right knee. It later expanded its acceptance of the claim to include unilateral primary osteoarthritis, right knee.

On February 24, 2025 appellant underwent OWCP-authorized arthroscopy, knee, debridement/shaving of articular cartilage (chondroplasty).

OWCP subsequently received a September 2, 2025 request from Dr. Chris Main, an attending Board-certified orthopedic surgeon, to expand the acceptance of appellant’s claim to include derangement of medial meniscus due to an old tear or injury, right knee; and complex tear of medial meniscus right knee for a current injury. Dr. Main explained that expansion of the claim was necessary to accurately reflect the current state of appellant’s right knee condition which had evolved following her original October 17, 2024 work-related injury.

On September 29, 2025 appellant filed a notice of recurrence (Form CA-2a) claiming disability causally related to the October 17, 2024 employment injury. She alleged that on August 4, 2025 she developed swelling of the right knee after she was twisting and turning to case her route and her knee buckled. OWCP converted the notice of recurrence to a claim for traumatic injury on August 4, 2025, and assigned OWCP File No. xxxxxx007.1

On October 3, 2025 OWCP referred the medical record and a statement of accepted facts (SOAF) to Dr. Michael M. Katz, a Board-certified orthopedic surgeon serving as OWCP’s district medical adviser (DMA), for an opinion on whether the accepted October 17, 2024 employment injury caused additional conditions. It requested that Dr. Katz “review and specifically comment on the opinion of Dr. Main in the report[s] dated August 18 and September 2, 2025.”2

In an October 16, 2025 report, Dr. Katz reviewed the medical record and SOAF and opined that the case record did not support expansion of the acceptance of the claim to include the additional conditions of derangement of medial meniscus due to an old tear or injury, right knee; and complex tear of medial meniscus right knee for a current injury. He specifically opined that the proposed diagnoses were duplicative and overlapping with the presently accepted conditions. Dr. Katz concluded that he was unable to recommend acceptance of the proposed diagnoses.

By decision dated December 3, 2025, OWCP denied expansion of the acceptance of appellant’s claim to include additional right knee conditions as causally related to, or consequential to, the accepted October 17, 2024 employment injury. It found that the conditions were duplicative and overlapped the previously accepted conditions.

On January 8, 2026 appellant via OWCP’s Employees’ Compensation Operations & Management Portal (ECOMP), requested a telephonic hearing before a representative of OWCP’s Branch of Hearings and Review. In support thereof, she submitted additional medical evidence.

By decision dated January 13, 2026, OWCP denied appellant’s January 8, 2026 request for an oral hearing as untimely filed, pursuant to 5 U.S.C. § 8124(b). It further exercised its discretion and determined that the issue in this case could equally well be addressed by a request for reconsideration before OWCP, along with the submission of new evidence.

The Board has duly considered this matter and finds that the case is not in posture for decision.

OWCP’s procedures provide that cases should be administratively combined when correct adjudication of the issues depends on frequent cross-referencing between files, including when

1
OWCP filed a report dated August 18, 2025 from Dr. Main in OWCP File No. xxxxxx007.
2
The Board notes that Dr. Main’s August 18, 2025 report was not contained in the case record when OWCP referred the medical record to Dr. Katz, the DMA.

2 similar conditions are claimed in such cases.3 This allows OWCP to consider all relevant claim files in developing a given claim and allows the Board access to review all of the medical evidence relevant to the claim on appeal. Appellant’s claim under OWCP File No. xxxxxx007 involved the right knee and should therefore be administratively combined with the present claim, OWCP File No. xxxxxx794, for a full and fair adjudication. This will allow the Board to consider all relevant reports and accompanying evidence in reviewing appellant’s current expansion claim. As the Board is unable to review evidence found in OWCP File No. xxxxxx007, it is not in a position to make an informed decision regarding appellant’s claim.4

The Board shall therefore remand the case for OWCP to administratively combine OWCP File Nos. xxxxxx794 and xxxxxx007. Following this and other such further development as deemed necessary, OWCP shall issue a de novo decision. Accordingly,

IT IS HEREBY ORDERED THAT the December 3, 2025 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. The January 13, 2026 decision of the Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs is set aside as moot.

Issued: June 25, 2026
Washington, DC

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

Janice B. Askin, Judge
Employees’ Compensation Appeals Board

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

3
Federal (FECA) Procedure Manual, Part 2 -- Claims, File Maintenance and Management, Chapter 2.400.8c (February 2000).
4
K.K., Docket No. 26-0224 (issued April 29, 2026); E.M., Docket No. 26-0175 (issued April 3, 2026); L.H., Docket No. 17-1960 (issued August 16, 2018).

3