North American Coal Corp. v. Campbell

• Decision Date: 27 November 1984
• Docket Number: No. 83-3553,83-3553
• Citation: 748 F.2d 1124
• Parties: NORTH AMERICAN COAL CORPORATION, Petitioner, v. Ida CAMPBELL (Widow of Lawrence Campbell); Director, Office of Workers' Compensation Programs, United States Department of Labor; Benefits Review Board, Respondents.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit

Page 1124

748 F.2d 1124

NORTH AMERICAN COAL CORPORATION, Petitioner, v. Ida CAMPBELL (Widow of Lawrence Campbell); Director, Office of Workers' Compensation Programs, United States Department of Labor; Benefits Review Board, Respondents.

No. 83-3553.

United States Court of Appeals Sixth Circuit.

Argued Aug. 3, 1984.

Decided Nov. 27, 1984.

David J. Millstone (argued), Maria J. Codinach, Squire, Sanders & Dempsey, Cleveland, Ohio, for petitioner.

Jeffrey J. Bernstein (argued), J. Michael O'Neill, U.S. Dept. of Labor, Washington, D.C., Jennifer Sargus (argued), Schrader, Stamp, Byrd, Byrum, Johnson & Companion, Wheeling, W.Va., for respondents.

Before EDWARDS and MARTIN, Circuit Judges, and SILER, District Judge. ^*

BOYCE F. MARTIN, Jr., Circuit Judge.

North American Coal Corporation appeals the award of black lung survivor's benefits to Ida Campbell, widow of Lawrence Campbell, a former North American coal-mining employee. The company makes three arguments: (1) that the administrative law judge's finding that Lawrence Campbell was partially disabled by pneumoconiosis is not supported by substantial evidence; (2) that the statutory provision entitling Ida Campbell to benefits, 30 U.S.C. Sec. 921(c)(5), is unconstitutional; and (3) that any benefits owed to Ida Campbell must be paid by the Black Lung Benefits Trust Fund and not by North American.

Lawrence Campbell worked thirty-four years as an underground coal miner for North American Coal. On June 10, 1974, at the age of sixty, he was crushed to death in a mining accident. An autopsy revealed that he was suffering from simple pneumoconiosis at the time of his death. Campbell's widow, Ida, filed for survivor's benefits on August 5, 1974. Her claim was initially denied. However, after passage of the Black Lung Benefits Reform Act of 1977, the Secretary of Labor reviewed her claim under the new standards and decided to award benefits. The Secretary also determined that North American was responsible for paying those benefits. North American objected and requested a hearing before the administrative law judge. The administrative law judge upheld the Secretary's decision on July 8, 1980, ruling that Mr. Campbell was entitled to benefits under the twenty-five-year presumption of 30 U.S.C. Sec. 921(c)(5). ¹ The Benefits Review Board upheld the administrative law judge's decision on June 10, 1983.

North American's first contention on appeal is that the administrative law judge's finding of disability is not supported by substantial evidence. See Moore v. Califano, 633 F.2d 727, 729 (6th Cir.1980) (administrative law judge's finding must be upheld if supported by substantial evidence.) All parties agree that Ida Campbell was entitled to the benefit of the section 921(c)(5) presumption. Her husband worked twenty-five years in the mines prior to June 30, 1971, and he died prior to March 1, 1978. However, North American claims to have rebutted the presumption of entitlement by establishing that Lawrence Campbell was neither partially nor totally disabled due to pneumoconiosis at the time of his death. The company points to testimony by Campbell's foreman that Campbell rarely missed a day of work and never complained of difficulties performing his job as a coal-car motorman. The company also notes that only two months prior to his death, Campbell visited his doctor for a check-up and made no mention of any respiratory problems or symptoms, nor were any diagnosed. Finally the company relies on the testimony of its medical expert that, based on a review of autopsy findings and Campbell's medical and employment histories, Campbell was neither partially nor totally disabled by pneumoconiosis.

However, there was other evidence in the record to support a finding of partial disability. One of Campbell's co-workers testified that Campbell had breathing difficulties while climbing a 980-foot slope out of the mine at the end of each day's work. He would stop periodically to catch his breath and sometimes "get red as a beet." Despite North American's protestations to the contrary, this daily climb out of the mine was a part of Campbell's usual work, a part that was clearly difficult to perform. Moreover, there was testimony by Campbell's wife which, if believed, would establish that Campbell experienced exertional problems at home in his later years that were bound to affect his ability to perform on the job. According to Ida Campbell, in his later years her husband could no longer help her with the household chores, mow the lawn, tend his large garden, or walk the half-mile to his favorite fishing spot. He was reduced to sleeping on the couch at night with his back propped up in order to breathe easier. The administrative law judge found that Campbell's exertional limitations reduced his ability to perform the "strenuous activities ... required of a motorman on a recurring basis." While we might have decided this case otherwise, our task is not to weigh the evidence but rather to determine if it is sufficient to sustain a benefits award. We believe that it is.

North American next attacks on several grounds the constitutionality of the presumption upon which Ida Campbell relied to receive benefits. First the company claims section 921(c)(5) is unconstitutional under the due process clause of the fifth amendment because "there is no rational connection between the fact proven [time in the mines] and the ultimate fact presumed [black lung disability]." Usery v. Turner Elkhorn Mining Co., 428 U.S. 1, 28, 96 S.Ct. 2882, 2898, 49 L.Ed.2d 752 (1976) (quoting Mobile, Jackson & Kansas City Railroad Co. v. Turnipseed, 219 U.S. 35, 43, 31 S.Ct. 136, 138, 55 L.Ed. 78 (1910)). In Turner Elkhorn, the Supreme Court was faced with a challenge to the validity of two other section 921(c) presumptions, namely that a coal miner with ten years' employment in the mines who suffers from pneumoconiosis is presumed to have contracted the disease from mining, 30 U.S.C. Sec. 921(c)(1), and that if a coal miner with at least ten year's employment in the mines dies of a respiratory disease, he will be presumed to have died of black lung. 30 U.S.C. Sec. 921(c)(2). In upholding the validity of these presumptions, the Court stressed the deference which is to be given to the Congress in these matters. "The process of making the determination of raitonality is, by its nature, highly empirical and in matters not within specialized judicial competence or completely commonplace, significant weight should be accorded the capacity of Congress to amass the stuff of actual experience and cull conclusions from it." Id. at 28, 96 S.Ct. at 2898 (quoting United States v. Gainey, 380 U.S. 63, 67, 85 S.Ct. 754, 757, 13 L.Ed.2d 658 (1965)).

Here, North American correctly points out that the Congress heard much testimony to the effect that there is no clear causal connection between duration of employment and incidence of total disability due to pneumoconiosis. See, e.g., S.Rep. No. 209, 95th Cong., 1st Sess. 17 (1977); H.Rep. No. 151, 95th Cong., 2d Sess. 81-82, reprinted in 1978 U.S. Code Cong. & Ad. News 237, 293-95. However, the statutory provision at issue here, unlike all other provisions in the Black Lung Benefits Act, allows recovery for either total or partial disability due to pneumoconiosis. And the Congress did have before it significant evidence of a connection between years of service and partial disability. For example, an autopsy study of 400 deceased miners showed that ninety percent with over twenty-five years underground had some form of pneumoconiosis, over half at least moderate in severity. See H.Rep. No. 151, 95th Cong., 2d Sess. 31, 34, reprinted in 1978 U.S. Code Cong. & Ad. News 237, 267, 270. Accordingly, we find that it was reasonable for the Congress to presume that miners with twenty-five years of experience were at least partially disabled by black lung and to put the burden on the mine operators to prove that they were not. ²

Next, North American argues that section 921(c)(5) is unconstitutional because it retroactively creates new rights and new obligations. As written, the statute allows a deceased miner's survivors to file claims on behalf of employees who died many years before the statute's effective date. This challenge is also made under the due process clause. In the retroactive context, the requirements of that clause are "met simply by showing that the retroactive application of the legislation is itself justified by a rational legislative purpose." Pension Benefit Guarantee Corp. v. R.A. Gray & Co., --- U.S. ----, 104 S.Ct. 2709, 2718, 81 L.Ed.2d 601 (1984). In our case, the rational purpose is compensating survivors of deceased miners for the injury that the miners suffered because of black lung disability. The fact that the statute's retroactive application imposes new duties and upsets otherwise settled expectations is not sufficient to invalidate it, id. at 2718 (citing Turner Elkhorn, 428 U.S. at 15-16, 96 S.Ct. at 2892-93, unless the changes it imposes are "particularly 'harsh and oppressive.' " Id. at 2720 (quoting United States Trust Co. v. New Jersey, 431 U.S. 1, 17 n.13, 97 S.Ct. 1505, 1515 n.13,...