Clinchfield Coal Co. v. Fuller
| Decision Date | 25 June 1999 |
| Docket Number | No. 98-1949.,98-1949. |
| Citation | 180 F.3d 622 |
| Parties | CLINCHFIELD COAL COMPANY, Petitioner, v. Debra Ann FULLER, widow of Elmer L. Fuller, deceased; Director, Office of Workers' Compensation Programs, United States Department of Labor, Respondents. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit |
ARGUED: Timothy Ward Gresham, Penn, Stuart, Eskridge & Jones, Abingdon, Virginia, for Clinchfield Coal. Edward Waldman, United States Department of Labor, Washington, D.C., for Director. Daniel H. Sachs, Wiesenfeld & Waldman, P.C., Hyattsville, Maryland, for Fuller. ON BRIEF: Marvin Krislov, Deputy Solicitor for National Operations, Donald S. Shire, Associate Solicitor, Christian P. Barber, for Appellate Litigation, United States Department of Labor, Washington, D.C., for Director.
Before TRAXLER and KING, Circuit Judges, and LEE, United States District Judge for the Eastern District of Virginia, sitting by designation.
Petition for review granted, award vacated, and claim remanded by published opinion. Judge KING wrote the opinion, in which Judge TRAXLER and Judge LEE joined.
Clinchfield Coal Company petitions for review of the Decision and Order of the Benefits Review Board (BRB) upholding an award of black lung survivors' benefits to the respondent, Debra Ann Fuller, the widow of deceased coal miner Elmer Fuller.1 An Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) determined that Mr. Fuller had been afflicted with pneumoconiosis arising out of his coal mine employment, and that the disease had hastened his death.
We conclude that the ALJ improperly evaluated the competing evidence regarding the extent to which Mr. Fuller's pneumoconiosis affected the pulmonary condition that contributed to his death. The BRB placed its imprimatur upon the ALJ's reasoning, but we cannot. We therefore grant the petition for review, vacate the award of benefits, and remand for further proceedings.
Black lung benefits may be paid to eligible survivors of a miner whose death was "due to pneumoconiosis," 20 C.F.R. § 718.205(a)(1998), i.e., where pneumoconiosis is "a substantially contributing cause or factor leading to the miner's death." § 718.205(c)(2). The claimant will recover upon proving, by a preponderance of the evidence, that pneumoconiosis "actually hastened the miner's death." Shuff v. Cedar Coal Co., 967 F.2d 977, 979-80 (4th Cir. 1992).
Ms. Fuller filed her claim for survivors' benefits about a month after her husband's death in 1994 from "a final episode of respiratory and cardiac failure." Mr. Fuller had worked in the coal mines for over twenty years. X-rays taken during his lifetime never read positive for pneumoconiosis, but an autopsy revealed the presence of moderate anthracosis and numerous carbonaceous macules in both lungs.
The District Director denied the claim on initial review, and again upon Ms. Fuller's request for modification. The matter was subsequently referred to the Office of Administrative Law Judges for hearing, in anticipation of which an informal conference was scheduled to define the scope of the dispute. Ms. Fuller attended the conference with her attorney. Clinchfield, which had earlier controverted its liability for the claim, was also represented by counsel.2
At the conference, the parties were asked to respond to a "Stipulation of Uncontested and Contested Issues." The claims examiner produced a checklist of facts potentially in dispute and asked the parties to indicate whether they agreed or disagreed with the truth of each particular assertion. During this process, Clinchfield stipulated that Mr. Fuller "had pneumoconiosis (black lung) as defined by the Act and regulations," and that Mr. Fuller's affliction "was caused by coal mine employment." The parties could not agree, however, as to whether Mr. Fuller's death was "due to pneumoconiosis." The case proceeded before the ALJ to decide that precise question.
Ms. Fuller presented the statement of her husband's treating cardiologist, Dr. Harrison Turner, who opined that Mr. Fuller's "autopsy-proven" pneumoconiosis "increased the breathing workload of a heart already compromised by significant left ventricular dysfunction, further reducing air exchange and increasing the cardiac workload." At his deposition, Dr. Turner retreated from this position somewhat. Although he reiterated that death had come sooner to Mr. Fuller as the result of the latter's breathing impairment, Dr. Turner hesitated to attribute the poor condition of his patient's lungs to coal dust exposure, expressing his belief that such a diagnosis was better left to pulmonologists.
Dr. Forehand acknowledged that cigarette smoking had adversely affected Mr. Fuller's respiratory capacity. He nonetheless held firm in his belief that pneumoconiosis was also to blame, stating that "both his coal workers' pneumoconiosis and pulmonary emphysema from cigarette smoking were . . . the cause of lack of respiratory compensation during terminal events in the hospital preceding death."
Clinchfield's experts took a different view. The company had four pathologists and three pulmonary specialists review the pertinent records; all concluded that Mr. Fuller had suffered from, at most, "mild" or "minimal" simple pneumoconiosis. None believed the disease to have contributed to his death. To the extent that these experts recognized Mr. Fuller to have a pulmonary disorder, it was attributed solely to cigarette smoking.
The ALJ credited Ms. Fuller's evidence, giving determinative weight to Dr. Turner's opinion. The opinions of Clinchfield's experts were deemed to be less probative, largely because the ALJ thought them contradictory to the company's stipulation that Mr. Fuller had pneumoconiosis "as defined by the Act and regulations." That definition states:
For the purpose of the Act, pneumoconiosis means a chronic dust disease of the lung and its sequelae, including respiratory and pulmonary impairments, arising out of coal mine employment. . . . For purposes of this definition, a disease "arising out of coal mine employment" includes any chronic pulmonary disease resulting in respiratory or pulmonary impairment significantly related to, or substantially aggravated by, dust exposure in coal mine employment.
20 C.F.R. § 718.201 (1998) (emphases added). The ALJ construed the words "including" and "includes" as...
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Hapney v. Peabody Coal Co., BRB 02-0729 BLA
... ... finding that the presumption contained in Section 718.203 was ... not rebutted. See Clinchfield Coal Co. v. Fuller , ... 180 F.3d 622, 21 BLR 2-654 (4th Cir. 1999); see also ... Cranor v. Peabody Coal Co. , 21 BLR 1-201 (1999) ... ...
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... ... term was not merely a reference to black pigment. 20 C.F.R ... §718.201(a)(1); see Clinchfield Coal Co. v ... Fuller, 180 F.3d 622, 21 BLR 2-654 (4th Cir. 1999); ... Youghiogheny & Ohio Coal Co. v. Milliken, 866 F.2d ... ...
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Opp v. Peabody Coal Co., BRB 03-0618 BLA
... ... disease, " such as in the instant case. Director's ... Exhibit 12; see also Employer's Exhibit ... 10 at 5-7; Clinchfield Coal Co. v. Fuller, 180 F.3d ... 622, 625, 21 BLR 2-654, 2-661 (4th Cir. 1999) (Section ... 718.201 provides legal definition of ... ...
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Griffith v. Eastern Associated Corp., BRB 00-0215 BLA
... WILLIAM C. GRIFFITH Claimant-Respondent v. STERLING SMOKELESS COAL CORPORATION Employer-Petitioner DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF WORKERS' COMPENSATION PROGRAMS, UNITED STATES ... totally disabling respiratory impairment, see ... Hobbs v. Clinchfield Coal Co. , 917 F.2d 790, 15 BLR ... 2-225 (4th Cir. 1990); Robinson v. Pickands Mather & ... §902(b); 20 C.F.R ... §718.201; Clinchfield Coal Co. v. Fuller , 180 ... F.3d 622, 21 BLR 2-654 (4th Cir. 1999); see also Stiltner ... v. Island ... ...