United States Department of Labor

Employees’ Compensation Appeals Board

__________________________________________

R.S., Appellant

and

U.S. POSTAL SERVICE, SOUTH SUBURBAN 

PROCESSING & DISTRIBUTION CENTER, 

Bedford Park, IL, Employer

__________________________________________

)

)

)

)

)

)

)

)

)

Docket No. 20-1232

Issued: April 28, 2021

Appearances: Case Submitted on the Record

Alan J. Shapiro, Esq., for the appellant1

Office of Solicitor, for the Director

ORDER REMANDING CASE

Before:

ALEC J. KOROMILAS, Chief Judge

JANICE B. ASKIN, Judge

PATRICIA H. FITZGERALD, Alternate Judge

On June 1, 2020 appellant, through counsel, filed a timely appeal from an April 23, 2020 

merit decision of the Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs (OWCP). The Clerk of the 

Appellate Boards docketed the appeal as No. 20-1232.

On July 31, 2014 appellant, then a 49-year-old distribution operations supervisor, filed an 

occupational disease claim (Form CA-2) alleging that, since her prior April 2, 2014 work-related 

back injury,

2

she experienced lumbar radiculopathy and severe pain and cramping in her right foot.

She stopped work on April 2, 2014. OWCP accepted appellant’s claim for tenosynovitis of the 

 

1

In all cases in which a representative has been authorized in a matter before the Board, no claim for a fee for legal 

or other service performed on appeal before the Board is valid unless approved by the Board. 20 C.F.R. § 501.9(e). 

No contract for a stipulated fee or on a contingent fee basis will be approved by the Board. Id. An attorney or 

representative’s collection of a fee without the Board’s approval may constitute a misdemeanor, subject to fine or 

imprisonment for up to one year or both. Id.; see also 18 U.S.C. § 292. Demands for payment of fees to a 

representative, prior to approval by the Board, may be reported to appropriate authorities for investigation.

2 Appellant had a prior claim for an April 2, 2014 traumatic injury which OWCP accepted for lumbosacral 

spondylolisthesis, lumbar spinal stenosis, lumbar spine sprain, and left hip enthesopathy, under OWCP File No. 

xxxxxx798.
2

right foot and ankle and right idiopathic peripheral neuropathy, and assigned the claim OWCP File 

No. xxxxxx755.

On June 24, 2016 appellant filed a claim for a schedule award (Form CA-7).

By decision dated March 8, 2017, OWCP granted appellant a schedule award for four 

percent permanent impairment of the right lower extremity due to her accepted right foot and ankle 

injuries. The period of the award ran for 11.52 weeks from June 2 to August 21, 2016. On

March 17, 2017 appellant, through counsel, requested a telephonic hearing before a representative 

of OWCP’s Branch of Hearings and Review, which was held on August 30, 2017.

By decision dated October 19, 2017, OWCP’s hearing representative affirmed the 

March 8, 2017 decision. Because of cross-referencing between the files, she directed OWCP to 

administratively combine appellant’s prior claim under OWCP File No. xxxxxx798 with the 

present claim, OWCP File No. xxxxxx755, to provide a complete and accurate factual and medical 

history. 

OWCP, by decision dated November 25, 2019, denied appellant’s claim for an increased 

schedule award. On December 2, 2019 appellant, through counsel, again requested a telephonic 

hearing before a representative of OWCP’s Branch of Hearings and Review, which was held on 

March 10, 2020.

By decision dated April 23, 2020, the hearing representative affirmed the November 25, 

2019 decision.

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

decision. OWCP’s procedures provide that cases should be administratively combined where 

correct adjudication depends on cross-referencing between files and where two or more injuries 

occur to the same part of the body.3 The medical evidence of record indicates that appellant’s 

alleged left foot conditions in the present claim may be causally related to her accepted back 

conditions in OWCP File No. xxxxxx798. Although directed by the hearings representative to 

combine the files, the electronic case record as transmitted to the Board, however, indicates that 

they had not been combined. Due to frequent cross-referencing of the claims, for a full and fair 

adjudication, the case must be returned to OWCP to administratively combine the current case 

record, OWCP File No. xxxxxx755, with OWCP File No. xxxxxx798. This will allow OWCP to 

consider all relevant claim files in developing appellant’s schedule award claim.4 

Accordingly, the Board will remand the case to OWCP to administratively combine OWCP 

File Nos. xxxxxx755 and xxxxxx798. Following this and other such development as deemed 

necessary, OWCP shall issue a de novo decision on appellant’s increased schedule award claim.

 

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

(February 2000).

4

Id.
3

IT IS HEREBY ORDERED THAT the April 23, 2020 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: April 28, 2021

Washington, DC

Alec J. Koromilas, Chief Judge

Employees’ Compensation Appeals Board

Janice B. Askin, Judge

Employees’ Compensation Appeals Board

Patricia H. Fitzgerald, Alternate Judge

Employees’ Compensation Appeals Board