Massachusetts Injury Lawyers Blog
A breathing test cannot tell the whole story of whether someone can return to demanding physical work. The worker’s duties, medical limitations, and employment history may all affect entitlement to benefits. A recent decision upheld a black lung benefits award after examining both the miner’s years of qualifying employment and medical opinions about his ability to perform heavy labor. The ruling applies federal coal mine benefits rules, but it illustrates why a claim should connect medical evidence to actual job demands. If an occupational illness has affected your ability to work in Massachusetts, a Massachusetts workers’ compensation attorney can help evaluate the evidence relevant to your claim.
Facts of the Case
It is reported that the claimant filed a subsequent black lung claim in 2017 after three earlier claims had been denied. His most recent prior denial rested on the failure to establish total disability. The later claim went through additional administrative proceedings before an administrative law judge awarded benefits.
Allegedly, the employer challenged the award on several grounds. It disputed whether Blevins had enough qualifying coal mine employment to invoke the federal 15-year presumption, whether he had a totally disabling respiratory impairment, and whether the employer’s medical evidence defeated the presumption.
The Work History Met the Threshold Without the Disputed Year
The length of qualifying employment mattered because the applicable federal presumption can help a miner with at least fifteen years of qualifying coal mine work and a totally disabling respiratory or pulmonary impairment establish entitlement to benefits.
Applying controlling Fourth Circuit authority, the Board explained that 125 working days within a calendar year could support a full year of coal mine employment without an additional requirement to establish a 365-day employment relationship. Fractions of qualifying years also contributed to the calculation.
Even excluding all of the disputed 1989 period, the Board calculated 15.54 years of qualifying employment. It therefore did not need to resolve whether particular strike or recuperation periods should count. The remaining employment history independently satisfied the threshold. This calculation reflected the federal law governing Blevins’s claim; it is not a general Massachusetts rule for measuring employment.
Doctors Connected the Breathing Impairment to Heavy Work
The employer also challenged the finding of total respiratory disability. Although the testing did not independently establish disability under the regulatory numerical standards, the administrative law judge credited reasoned medical opinions explaining why Blevins could not perform his usual heavy or very heavy work.
The Board upheld that approach. The doctors considered the demands of Blevins’s job alongside his pulmonary limitations. One doctor also explained why improvement after a bronchodilator did not establish an ongoing ability to perform the work: the improvement was temporary, and the miner would not remain continuously bronchodilated.
The Board also upheld the rejection of the employer’s effort to disprove legal pneumoconiosis. Problems with its medical opinion included a categorical view about coal dust and asthma, reliance on older testing without adequately addressing the potentially progressive nature of the disease, and an insufficient explanation of the irreversible component of the impairment.
Thus, the Board affirmed the benefits award.
Talk to a Trusted Massachusetts Workers’ Compensation Attorney
If a work-related illness has limited your ability to do your job in Massachusetts, you should talk to an attorney. James K. Meehan of the Law Office of James K. Meehan is a trusted Massachusetts workers’ compensation attorney who can advise you of your potential claim. Call 508-822-6600 for a free consultation to discuss your employment history, medical evidence, and the physical requirements of your work.