United States Fourth Circuit

An employer's petition for review of the Benefits Review Board's judgment in favor of the wife of a deceased coal miner on her living miner's and survivor claims, is denied where: 1) the Board's rulings that the ALJ abused his discretion in granting the employer's modification request and that the ALJ's erroneous decision was subject to outright reversal will not be disturbed, as unlike the 2008 ALJ decision, the 2009 Board decision acknowledged and applied the correct legal principles, arriving at the conclusion that retroactively denying the deceased employee's living miner's benefits award, in order to foil his widow's good faith survivor claim, would not render justice under the Black Lung Benefits Act; and 2) the Board appropriately applied the doctrine of offensive nonmutual collateral estoppel in approving the widow's survivor's claim.

Appellate Information

• Decided 08/20/2012
• Published 08/20/2012

Judges

• King

Court

• United States Fourth Circuit

Counsel