United States Department of Labor 

Employees’ Compensation Appeals Board 

__________________________________________ 

M.A., Appellant 

and 

U.S. POSTAL SERVICE, MORGAN 

PROCESSING & DISTRIBUTION CENTER, 

New York, NY, Employer 

__________________________________________ 

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Docket No. 14-1070 

Issued: November 25, 2014 

Appearances: Case Submitted on the Record

Tom Mullahey, for the appellant 

Office of Solicitor, for the Director 

ORDER REMANDING CASE 

Before: 

CHRISTOPHER J. GODFREY, Chief Judge 

COLLEEN DUFFY KIKO, Judge 

PATRICIA HOWARD FITZGERALD, Judge 

On April 8, 2014 appellant, through her representative, filed an application for review of 

a decision of the Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs (OWCP) dated March 11, 2014 in 

which an OWCP hearing representative found that appellant abandoned a scheduled hearing and 

an October 23, 2013 decision in which OWCP denied a recurrence of disability. The appeal was 

docketed as No. 14-1070.1

 

In correspondence dated and postmarked November 21, 2013, appellant requested an oral 

hearing from the October 23, 2013 decision. In a notice dated January 2, 2014 and addressed to 

appellant’s address of record but without a zip code, OWCP advised her that a telephonic hearing 

would be held in her case on February 3, 2014 at 10:00 a.m. Eastern time. It provided 

instructions to appellant as to how to access the hearing. In a March 11, 2014 decision, OWCP 

 

 1 On September 23, 2010 appellant, a mail hander, filed a traumatic injury claim alleging that she injured her 

lower back picking up trays of mail. She stopped work that day. OWCP accepted that she sustained lumbosacral 

neuritis or radiculitis. Appellant was placed on the periodic compensation rolls. Based on the opinion of 

Dr. Hormozan Aprin, a Board-certified orthopedic surgeon and OWCP referral physician, the employing 

establishment offered her a modified mail handler position for four hours a day, that she accepted on May 23, 2013. 

Appellant began part-time modified duty on June 3, 2013. On June 13, 2013 she filed a recurrence claim, stating 

that her work duties caused incapacitating back pain. 
2

found that appellant had abandoned her request for a hearing. The decision noted that the record 

contained no indication that she contacted OWCP either prior or subsequent to the scheduled 

hearing to explain her failure to appear. 

On appeal, appellant asserts that she did not receive the notice of hearing. The Board has 

duly considered the matter and finds that the case is not in posture for decision as the record 

supports that the Branch of Hearings and Review failed to properly issue the notice of hearing. 

OWCP regulations and procedures provide that the Branch of Hearing and Review shall 

mail appropriate written notice 30 days prior to a scheduled hearing.2

 Under the mailbox rule, it 

is presumed, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, that a notice properly mailed to an 

individual in the ordinary course of business was received by that individual. This presumption 

arises where it appears from the record that the notice was properly addressed and duly mailed.3

 

The presumption of receipt does not apply where a notice is sent to an incorrect address.4

 As the 

January 2, 2014 notice of hearing, was not properly mailed (lacking the zip code), the Board 

finds that appellant was not provided proper notice of her hearing under section 10.617(b) of its 

regulations. 

Thus, the case will be remanded to reschedule the hearing, giving her proper notice.5

 

 

 2

 20 C.F.R. § 10.622(c); Federal (FECA) Procedure Manual, Part 2 -- Claims, Determining Pay Rates, Chapter 

2.1601.6.b (March 2011). 

3 M.U., Docket No. 09-526 (issued September 14, 2009). 

4 Id. 

5

 The Board notes that, based on the posture of this order, it would be premature to address the merits of 

appellant’s recurrence claim. 
3

IT IS HEREBY ORDERED THAT the March 11, 2014 decision of the Office of 

Workers’ Compensation Programs is set aside and the case remanded to OWCP for further 

action in conformance with this order of the Board. 

Issued: November 25, 2014 

Washington, DC 

 

 Christopher J. Godfrey, Chief Judge 

 Employees’ Compensation Appeals Board 

 

 Colleen Duffy Kiko, Judge 

 Employees’ Compensation Appeals Board 

 

 Patricia Howard Fitzgerald, Judge 

 Employees’ Compensation Appeals Board