United States Department of Labor 

Employees’ Compensation Appeals Board 

_________________________________________ 

L.B., Appellant 

and 

DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY, ARMY 

DEPOT, Red River, TX, Employer 

_________________________________________ 

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Docket No. 15-1838 

Issued: October 4, 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 September 8, 2015 appellant filed a timely appeal from a May 1, 2015 merit decision 

and an August 19, 2015 nonmerit decision of the Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs 

(OWCP), which denied her occupational disease claim and an August 19, 2015 nonmerit 

decision which denied her June 1, 2015 request for reconsideration. The Board docketed the 

appeal as No. 15-1838 

On May 27, 2014 appellant, then a 64-year-old painter, filed a claim for recurrence of 

disability (Form CA-2a) due to a March 31, 2009 employment injury. She explained that her 

knee condition never stopped hurting and that her calf never stopped swelling. 

OWCP adjudicated the claim as a new occupational disease claim and converted the 

claim to an occupational disease claim (Form CA-2). In a March 25, 2015 memorandum to the 

file, the claims examiner directed that the claim be converted to a Form CA-2 claim and directed 

that the previously accepted claim, OWCP File No. xxxxxx168, be doubled with the new claim 

under OWCP File No. xxxxxx793. File No. xxxxxx168, however, is not presently available for 

review before the Board. 

The Board has duly considered the matter and finds that the case is not in posture for a 

decision. 
2

OWCP procedures provide that the cases should be combined when correct adjudication 

of the issues depends on frequent cross-reference between files.1

 In the instant case, OWCP 

determined that the recurrence claim should be adjudicated as a new occupational disease claim 

and requested that the previously accepted claim, File No. xxxxxx168, be doubled with the new 

occupational disease claim under number File No. xxxxxx793. Upon review of the record, 

however, it is clear that the record does not contain the factual and medical evidence pertaining 

to appellant’s March 31, 2009 employment injury in File No. xxxxxx168. 

The Board will consequently remand the case for OWCP to combine the current case 

record with File No. xxxxxx168. Following this and any further development deemed necessary, 

it shall issue a de novo decision on the merits. 

IT IS HEREBY ORDERED THAT the August 19 and May 1, 2015 decisions of the 

Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs be set aside and the case remanded for further 

action consistent with this order of the Board. 

Issued: October 4, 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 

 1

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

(February 2000).