United States Department of Labor 

Employees’ Compensation Appeals Board 

__________________________________________ 

W.B., Appellant 

and 

U.S. POSTAL SERVICE, POST OFFICE, 

Los Angeles, CA, Employer 

__________________________________________ 

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Docket No. 15-1751 

Issued: March 8, 2016 

Appearances: Case Submitted on the Record

Appellant, pro se 

Office of Solicitor, for the Director 

ORDER REMANDING CASE 

Before: 

CHRISTOPHER J. GODFREY, Chief Judge 

PATRICIA H. FITZGERALD, Deputy Chief Judge 

COLLEEN DUFFY KIKO, Judge 

On August 18, 2015 appellant filed a timely appeal of a July 30, 2015 merit decision of 

the Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs (OWCP) denying his consequential injury claim 

for cervical spine injury. The Board docketed the appeal as 15-1751. 

On September 10, 2014 appellant filed a traumatic injury claim (Form CA-1) alleging 

that exercises in physical therapy for his accepted arm condition aggravated a pinched nerve in 

his neck at C5-6. OWCP denied this claim by decision dated November 6, 2014, finding that 

appellant had not submitted sufficient medical evidence to establish a causal relationship 

between his diagnosed cervical condition and his accepted arm injury. Appellant requested an 

oral hearing. In a decision dated July 30, 2015, OWCP’s hearing representative denied 

appellant’s consequential injury claim, but referenced facts and medical evidence from his 

original injury claim, No. xxxxxx084 when deciding to deny the current claim. 

The Board, having duly considered the matter, concludes that the case is not in posture 

for decision. OWCP procedures provide that cases should be combined when correct 
2

adjudication of the issues depends on frequent cross-reference between files.1 In the instant case, 

appellant filed a consequential injury claim, which OWCP treated as a new traumatic injury. 

OWCP thereafter denied the traumatic injury claim for failure to establish causal relationship, 

finding that appellant had not submitted sufficient medical and factual evidence to establish that 

his activities during physical therapy caused his cervical condition. The Board notes that, by 

decision dated July 30, 2015, the hearing representative found that the case should never have 

been handled as a traumatic injury claim as appellant was in physical therapy at the time of the 

incident and could not have been in the performance of duty. Rather it should have been 

developed as a consequential injury under No. xxxxxx084. 

The hearing representative then reviewed the record as a consequential injury claim and 

found the medical evidence failed to meet appellant’s burden of proof. The hearing 

representative discussed the evidence of the prior claim to which the Board has no access. The 

hearing representative directed OWCP to combine appellant’s original and consequential injury 

claims upon return of the record.2 However, upon review of the case record, the Board notes that 

the files are not combined. The Board is unable to determine whether all of the pertinent 

evidence reviewed by the hearing representative in denying appellant’s consequential injury 

claim is in the record currently before the Board. 

As the record before the Board does not contain the evidence from the prior claim, the 

Board is unable to properly adjudicate the issue of appellant’s consequential injury claim. The 

Board finds that the case is not in posture for a decision as the record before the Board is 

incomplete and would not permit an informed adjudication of the case by the Board. The case 

must be remanded to OWCP to combine the files and for further reconstruction and assemblage 

deemed necessary, to be followed by an appropriate de novo decision. 

 

 1

 Federal (FECA) Procedure Manual, Part 2 -- Claims, File Maintenance & Management, Chapter 2.400.8(c) 

(February 2000). 

2 M.M., Docket No. 14-0617 (issued September 25, 2015) (finding that in a consequential injury claim, the case 

records should be combined). 
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IT IS HEREBY ORDERED THAT the July 30, 2015 decision of the Office of 

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

consistent with this order of the Board. 

Issued: March 8, 2016 

Washington, DC 

 

 Christopher J. Godfrey, Chief Judge 

 Employees’ Compensation Appeals Board 

 

 Patricia H. Fitzgerald, Deputy Chief Judge 

 Employees’ Compensation Appeals Board 

 

 Colleen Duffy Kiko, Judge 

 Employees’ Compensation Appeals Board