United States Fourth Circuit

Petition for review of Benefits Review Board's 2005 denial of petitioner's claim for survivor's benefits under the Black Lung Benefits Act is granted where the BRB and the ALJ erroneously failed to accord collateral estoppel effect to an earlier ALJ's 1988 ruling that petitioner's late husband suffered from pneumoconiosis as a result of his work in the coal mines of southern Appalachia.

Appellate Information

• Argued 05/24/2006
• Decided 11/08/2006
• Published 11/08/2006

Judges

• Before KING and SHEDD, Circuit Judges, and Joseph R. GOODWIN, United States District Judge for the Southern District of West Virginia, sitting by designation.

Court

• United States Fourth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellees:
  
• ARGUED:  Leonard Joseph Stayton, Inez, Kentucky, for Petitioner.   Douglas Allan Smoot, Jackson & Kelly, P.L.L.C., Charleston, West Virginia, for Respondent Pond Creek Mining Company;  Rita A. Roppolo, United States Department of Labor, Office of the Solicitor, Washington, D.C., for Respondent Director, Office of Workers' Compensation Programs.   ON BRIEF:  Kathy L. Snyder, Jackson & Kelly, P.L.L.C., Charleston, West Virginia, for Respondent Pond Creek Mining Company;  Howard M. Radzely, Solicitor of Labor, Patricia M. Nece, for Appellate Litigation, United States Department of Labor, Office of the Solicitor, Washington, D.C., for Respondent Director, Office of Workers' Compensation Programs.