United States Department of Labor 

Employees’ Compensation Appeals Board 

__________________________________________ 

M.A., Appellant 

and 

U.S. POSTAL SERVICE, POST OFFICE, 

San Diego, CA, Employer 

__________________________________________ 

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Docket No. 17-0003 

Issued: February 15, 2017 

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 October 2, 2016 appellant filed a timely appeal of an August 30, 2016 nonmerit 

decision of the Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs (OWCP) which found that her 

request for reconsideration was untimely filed and failed to demonstrate clear evidence of error. 

The Board docketed the appeal as No. 17-0003. 

The Board has reviewed the record on appeal and finds that the case must be remanded to 

OWCP for application of the appropriate standard of review because appellant’s request for 

reconsideration was timely submitted. Section 10.607(a) of OWCP’s implementing regulations 

provide that an application for reconsideration must be received within one year of the date of 

OWCP’s decision for which review is sought.1

The most recent OWCP decision on the merits of appellant’s claim was issued on 

May 29, 2015. By that decision it denied appellant’s traumatic injury claim, finding the evidence 

of record insufficient to establish that the event occurred as described.2

 On May 27, 2016 

 1

 20 C.F.R. § 10.607(a). 

2

 On March 30, 2015 appellant, then a 38-year-old city letter carrier, filed a traumatic injury claim (Form CA-1) 

alleging that she was attacked by a dog on March 28, 2015, and this caused left and right upper extremity injuries 

and post-traumatic stress disorder. 
2

appellant submitted a request for reconsideration.3

 In its August 30, 2016 decision, OWCP 

denied appellant’s reconsideration request because it was untimely filed and failed to 

demonstrate clear evidence of error. The request for reconsideration was received by OWCP on 

May 27, 2016, within one year of the May 29, 2015 OWCP merit decision. Appellant also 

submitted additional factual and medical evidence that day. 

Because appellant’s May 27, 2016 reconsideration request was timely filed, the case will 

be remanded to OWCP for application of the standard for reviewing timely requests for 

reconsideration.4 The “clear evidence of error” standard utilized by OWCP in its August 30, 

2016 decision is appropriate only for untimely reconsideration requests. After such further 

development as OWCP deems necessary, it should issue an appropriate decision. 

IT IS HEREBY ORDERED THAT the August 30, 2016 decision of the Office of 

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

proceedings consistent with this order of the Board. 

Issued: February 15, 2017 

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 

 3

 The Board notes that the request for reconsideration was scanned into iFECS as “Environ Studies/Maps/Phys 

Evid.” 

4 See 20 C.F.R. § 10.606(b)(3) (an application for reconsideration must show that OWCP erroneously applied or 

interpreted a specific point of law, advance a relevant legal argument not previously considered by OWCP, or 

include the submission of relevant and pertinent new evidence not previously considered by OWCP).