United States Department of Labor

Employees’ Compensation Appeals Board

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M.W., Appellant

and

U.S. POSTAL SERVICE, POST OFFICE, 

City of Industry, CA, Employer

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Docket No. 17-0743

Issued: January 23, 2018

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 February 14, 2017 appellant filed a timely appeal from a September 29, 2016 merit 

decision of the Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs (OWCP), File No. xxxxxx952, 

which denied appellant’s occupational disease claim. The appeal was docketed as No. 17-0743. 

On September 30, 2015 appellant filed an occupational disease claim (Form CA-2) and 

attributed his bilateral wrist tendinitis and aggravation of rheumatoid arthritis to his work duties.

He noted that he was initially instructed to file a recurrence claim, but later was told to file a new 

occupational disease claim. OWCP assigned the claim File No. xxxxxx952. Appellant’s 

supervisor noted that appellant stopped work on November 15, 2013 and was in a leave status 

from November 15, 2013 until he retired through disability retirement in February 2015. She 

also noted that appellant had previously received a schedule award for a bilateral hand and wrist 

condition through a February 21, 2008 occupational disease claim, assigned File No. xxxxxx396. 

The claim was accepted for bilateral wrist tendinitis. 

Appellant reported that his bilateral wrist and hand pain began in January 2008 and 

became worse after working for five more years with repetitive motion. He listed his duties as 

repetitive work of casing mail, opening vehicle door, and delivery of a large volume of mail on 

his route. Appellant noted that the pain in his wrists and hands was the same condition he had in 

2008 which was approved by OWCP in File No. xxxxxx396.
2

In a December 4, 2015 decision, OWCP denied appellant’s occupational disease claim 

finding that he had not submitted medical evidence of a medical diagnosis in connection with his 

employment duties. Appellant requested an oral hearing from OWCP’s Branch of Hearings and 

Review which was held on August 16, 2016. By decision dated September 29, 2016, OWCP’s 

hearing representative affirmed OWCP’s December 4, 2015 decision with modification.1 She 

found that appellant had established a medical diagnosis. However, OWCP’s hearing 

representative found that appellant had not established causal relationship between his injury and 

the specific condition for which compensation was claimed.

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

decision. OWCP procedures provide for combining case files where correct adjudication 

depends on cross-referencing between files. For example, if a new injury case is reported for an 

employee who previously filed an injury claim for a similar condition or the same part of the 

body, doubling is required.2 In the instant case, appellant asserted that he initially filed a 

recurrence of disability claim for the February 21, 2008 occupational disease injury, to which 

OWCP had assigned File No. xxxxxx396. He was then instructed to file an occupational disease 

claim and assigned File No. xxxxxx952. OWCP thereafter denied the claim. 

The record reveals that appellant’s previous February 21, 2008 occupational disease 

employment injury was assigned File No. xxxxxx396 and that the injury was to the same part of 

the body. The factual and medical evidence pertaining to appellant’s February 21, 2008

employment injury in File No. xxxxxx396, however, is not contained in the case record. OWCP, 

failed to properly combine or request combination of the present case record with the record of 

the February 21, 2008 employment injury, which appellant asserted was the initial cause of his 

current conditions.3

The case will be remanded to OWCP to combine case file numbers xxxxxx396 and 

xxxxxx952 and determine whether appellant sustained a new occupational disease injury. 

Following this and such other development as deemed necessary, OWCP shall issue an 

appropriate merit decision on appellant’s claim. 

 

1 OWCP’s hearing representative noted that appellant had a previously accepted claim for bilateral wrist tendinitis

dated February 21, 2008. File No. xxxxxx396. He filed a claim for recurrence of this claim which was last denied 

on December 10, 2014. Appellant filed a claim for right shoulder injury in 2011 which OWCP accepted for 

disorders of the bursa and tendons of the right shoulder. File No. xxxxxx935. Appellant also filed a claim for 

recurrence of this condition which OWCP denied. OWCP suspended his compensation benefits under this claim 

number on June 2, 2016.

2 P.G., Docket No. 15-1806 (issued October 4, 2016); Federal (FECA) Procedure Manual, Part 2 -- Claims, File 

Maintenance and Management, Chapter 2.400.8(c) (February 2000).
3

IT IS HEREBY ORDERED THAT the September 29, 2016 decision of the Office of 

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

action consistent with this order of the Board.3

Issued: January 23, 2018

Washington, DC

Christopher J. Godfrey, Chief Judge

Employees’ Compensation Appeals Board

Patricia H. Fitzgerald, Deputy Chief Judge

Employees’ Compensation Appeals Board

 

3 Colleen Duffy Kiko, Judge, participated in the preparation of this order, but was no longer a member of the 

Board effective December 11, 2017.