Director, Office of Workers' Compensation Programs, U.S. Dept. of Labor v. Bethlehem Mines Corp.

• Decision Date: 14 January 1982
• Docket Number: Nos. 81-1191,s. 81-1191
• Citation: 669 F.2d 187
• Parties: DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF WORKERS' COMPENSATION PROGRAMS, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF LABOR, Petitioner, v. BETHLEHEM MINES CORPORATION, and Pauline Fleming (Widow of Harry L. Fleming), Respondents. DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF WORKERS' COMPENSATION PROGRAMS, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF LABOR, Petitioner, v. CONSOLIDATION COAL COMPANY, and Leonard Slevin, Respondents. DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF WORKERS' COMPENSATION PROGRAMS, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF LABOR, Petitioner, v. CONSOLIDATION COAL COMPANY, and Employers Service Corporation, and Thelma Iser(Widow of Aubrey C. Iser), Respondents. DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF WORKERS' COMPENSATION PROGRAMS, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF LABOR, Petitioner, v. HAWLEY COAL MINING CORPORATION, and Abraham L. Christian, Respondents. to 81-1194.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit

Page 187

669 F.2d 187

DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF WORKERS' COMPENSATION PROGRAMS, UNITED

STATES DEPARTMENT OF LABOR, Petitioner, v. BETHLEHEM MINES CORPORATION, and Pauline Fleming (Widow of

Harry L. Fleming), Respondents.

DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF WORKERS' COMPENSATION PROGRAMS, UNITED

STATES DEPARTMENT OF LABOR, Petitioner, v. CONSOLIDATION COAL COMPANY, and Leonard Slevin, Respondents.

DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF WORKERS' COMPENSATION PROGRAMS, UNITED

STATES DEPARTMENT OF LABOR, Petitioner, v. CONSOLIDATION COAL COMPANY, and Employers Service

Corporation, and Thelma Iser(Widow of Aubrey C.

Iser), Respondents.

DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF WORKERS' COMPENSATION PROGRAMS, UNITED

STATES DEPARTMENT OF LABOR, Petitioner, v. HAWLEY COAL MINING CORPORATION, and Abraham L. Christian, Respondents.

Nos. 81-1191 to 81-1194.

United States Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit.

Argued July 14, 1981.

Decided Jan. 14, 1982.

Virginia C. Smith, U. S. Dept. of Labor, Washington, D. C. (T. Timothy Ryan, Jr., Sol. of Labor, Cornelius S. Donoghue, Jr., Acting Associate Sol., Washington, D. C., Judith E. Kramer, Co-Counsel for Black Lung Benefits on brief), for petitioner.

Charles M. Surber, Jr., Charleston, W. Va. (J. Randolph Query, III, Robert J. Busse, Jackson, Kelly, Holt & O'Farrell, Charleston, W. Va., on brief), J. Scott Leckie, Pittsburgh, Pa. (Mark Solomons, John Kilcullen, Kilcullen & Kilcullen, Washington, D. C., on brief), for respondents.

Before PHILLIPS, MURNAGHAN and ERVIN, Circuit Judges.

MURNAGHAN, Circuit Judge:

We are here presented with a difficult issue of interpretation of § 435 of the Black Lung Benefits Reform Act of 1977, 30 U.S.C. § 945. The question is whether certain claims for black lung disability benefits filed before June 30, 1973 are to be paid by the individual coal mine operator responsible for the disability, or are to be paid from the Black Lung Disability Trust Fund.

I.

The Director, Office of Workman's Compensation Programs, seeks consolidated review of four decisions of the Benefits Review Board awarding benefits to claimants for disability or survivor's benefits. Each claim originally was filed with the Department of Health, Education and Welfare (HEW) ¹ before June 1, 1973, and denied. After enactment of the Black Lung Benefits Reform Act of 1977, 30 U.S.C. § 901 et seq., the Secretary of HEW reconsidered and approved each claim, and, pursuant to § 945, certified approval to the Secretary of Labor for payment. The Secretary of Labor identified an operator responsible for each disability, and ordered the operator to pay benefits. Each operator refused payment, and each claim was referred to an administrative law judge for hearing. The claims were controverted on the merits. Three of the claims were upheld, but the claim of the fourth claimant, Thelma Iser, was denied. In each case upholding the claim, the administrative law judge held the coal mine operator responsible for payment of the benefits.

The operators held responsible in the three decisions approving claims, and claimant Iser appealed to the Benefits Review Board. Relying on its earlier decision in Yakubco v. Republic Steel Corp., 2 BLR 1-1116 (1980), appeal docketed sub. nom. Director, Office of Workers' Compensation Programs v. Republic Steel Corp., 663 F.2d 8 (3d Cir. 1981), the Review Board held that the Black Lung Disability Trust Fund, rather than individual coal mine operators, was responsible for the payment of benefits and attorneys' fees. The Board also reinstated Iser's claim, holding that the Secretary of HEW's certification of eligibility was binding on the Department of Labor, and could not be contested on appeal. The Board, in a manner consistent with its decision in the other three cases, also held that the Black Lung Disability Trust Fund, not the coal mine operator, was responsible for Iser's benefits.

The Director, Office of Workers' Compensation Programs, appeals.

II.

Title IV of the Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act of 1969, 30 U.S.C. § 901 et seq., divided claims for black lung disability benefits into two categories: Part B and Part C. Part B of the Act, 30 U.S.C. § 921 et seq., governed all claims for benefits filed on or before December 31, 1972. Part B claims were adjudicated by the Department of HEW; if approved, benefits were paid out of general revenues of the Treasury. See 30 U.S.C. § 922 (1969) (amended 1977).

Part C of the Act, 30 U.S.C. § 931 et seq., governed claims for benefits filed after December 31, 1972. Section 931 of the Act required that Part C claims first be filed with an appropriate state agency if the claim arose in a state with a workmen's compensation law that met federal standards. If the claim arose in a state where the workmen's compensation law did not meet federal standards, the claim was to be filed with the Department of Labor. If the Department of Labor approved the claim, the Department was to identify a coal mine operator responsible for the disability. The coal mine operator was to be liable for payment of black lung disability benefits. See 30 U.S.C. § 932 (1969) (amended 1977). If no responsible operator could be identified, benefits were to be paid out of general Treasury revenues. See 30 U.S.C. § 934 (1972) (amended 1977).

The distinction between Part B and Part C claims was intended to effect several policies. Congress wanted to compensate miners totally disabled by black lung disease, but limit federal involvement in the compensation program. Part C of the Act was designed to place primary responsibility for payment of benefits on the states and on the coal mine industry. Only if a state failed to enact a satisfactory workmen's compensation law and no responsible operator could be identified were payments to be made from general Treasury revenues. See 30 U.S.C. § 934 (1969) (amended 1977).

At the time the 1969 Act became effective, no state workmen's compensation law adequately compensated black lung disease. Until states enacted adequate workmen's compensation laws, the burden for all black lung benefits under Part C would rest with individual coal mine operators. Congress apparently concluded that, because the 1969 Act imposed new mine health and safety standards without prior notice, it would be unfair to make operators responsible for benefits until they had a reasonable opportunity to comply with the standards. ² Cf. H.R.Rep. 95-151, 95th Cong., 2d Sess. 10, reprinted in (1978) U.S.Code Cong. & Ad.News 237, 246. Part B of the Act therefore provided that benefits for all claims filed on or before December 31, 1972, would be paid from general Treasury revenues. See 30 U.S.C. § 922 (1969) (amended 1977).

The Black Lung Disability Benefits Act of 1972, amending Title IV of the Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act of 1969, maintained the distinction between Part B and Part C claims. Because many more persons had filed claims for benefits than Congress anticipated, resulting in a huge backlog of claims, Congress extended federal responsibility for benefits one year. The 1972 Act amended Part C to make operators responsible only for claims filed after December 31, 1973. ³ See S.Rep.No. 92-743 92d Cong., 2d Sess., 5-7 reprinted in (1972) U.S.Code Cong. & Ad.News, 2305, 2309-11.

Once in effect, the Black Lung Disability Benefits Act of 1972 met with difficulties. First, the Act failed to extricate the federal government from responsibility for benefits. No state enacted a workmen's compensation law that met federal standards, and the Department of Labor identified responsible operators only in about 25 to 30 percent of the claims. Consequently, benefits for the large majority of Part C claims were paid from general Treasury revenues. See H.R.Rep.No. 95-151, 95th Cong., 1st Sess. 21 (1977), reprinted in (1978) U.S.Code Cong. & Ad.News 237, 257. Second, HEW and the Department of Labor interpreted eligibility requirements differently, and often too restrictively. Many claims which should have been approved were denied. See H.R.Rep.No. 95-151 at 5.

The Black Lung Disability Reform Act of 1977 was enacted primarily to resolve those problems. Section 424(a) of the Act, 30 U.S.C. § 934(a), established a Black Lung Disability Trust Fund in the Treasury. The fund was supported by an excise tax on the sale of coal, and was to pay benefits where no adequate state workmen's compensation law existed and no responsible coal mine operator could be identified. See 30 U.S.C. § 934. The purpose of the fund was to shift responsibility for benefits once and for all from general Treasury revenues to the coal mine industry.

The 1977 Reform Act also amended eligibility requirements to ensure that HEW and the Department of Labor evaluated claims by the same standards, and evaluated them correctly. See 30 U.S.C. § 902. More important for our purposes, the 1977 Reform Act established procedures by which previously denied Part B and Part C claims could be reevaluated according to proper eligibility requirements. The procedure appears at § 435 of the Act, 30 U.S.C. § 945, which states:

Section 435(a)(1). The Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare shall promptly notify each claimant who has filed a claim for benefits under part B of this title and whose claim is either pending on the effective date of this section or has been denied on or before that effective date, that, upon the request of the claimant, the claim shall be either-

(A) reviewed by the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare under paragraph (2) for a determination based on the evidence on file, taking into account the amendments made by the Black Lung Benefits Reform Act of 1977; or

(B) referred directly by the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare to the Secretary of Labor for a determination under paragraph (3), with an opportunity for the claimant to present additional medical or other evidence in accordance with that paragraph, taking into account the amendments made by the Black Lung Benefits Reform Act of 197...