Opinion ID: 217821
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Review of Earlier Board Decision

Text: Finally, Mrs. Crowe asks us to review the Board's decision of August 24, 2004, in which it remanded an ALJ's previous award of benefits, concluding that the ALJ made an error of law. In that decision, the Board determined that the ALJ had failed to provide a medical reason for crediting the testimony of the single treating physician who diagnosed pneumoconiosis over the employer's physicians who, upon reviewing Mr. Crowe's medical records, determined that pneumoconiosis could not be diagnosed. The parties have submitted various arguments about the reviewability of this decision, a remand order that has twice been succeeded by additional orders of the Board on the merits. As we noted at oral argument, it is self-evident that our jurisdiction extends to questions addressed in interlocutory orders of the relevant agency or court. [18] Therefore, the difficulty for Mrs. Crowe on this issue is not, as Travelers contends, that we cannot reach the prior Board decision because it is not a final order. Rather, the difficulty is that the Board's legal determination did not control the ALJ's conclusion on remand. The remand simply provided the ALJ an opportunity to reexamine the evidence. [19] In doing so, the ALJ concluded that the prior award was erroneous in its determination that the evidence supported a diagnosis of pneumoconiosis. Although noting the basis for the Board's remand, the ALJ's focus was instead on a comprehensive reexamination of the record. In short, we need not decide whether the Board misstated our precedents when it remanded so that the ALJ could provide a medical reason for preferring the treating physician's diagnosis. Any such error would be harmless in the present case because, in the remanded proceedings, the ALJ's total reevaluation of the claim led to the conclusion that the record did not support Mr. Crowe. That determination was based not on the Board's medical reason standard, but on a complete review of the medical evidence from top to bottom. Consequently, I must conclude that the ALJ and the Board acted within their discretion in denying Mr. Crowe's motion to dismiss and in permitting delayed intervention by Travelers. Further, given the Act's strong preference for accuracy in benefits determinations, the ALJ did not abuse his discretion in determining that justice under the Act was served by the modification. Finally, although we may review interlocutory orders of the Board, any legal error in its 2004 ruling proved inconsequential; the ALJ's opinion completely reevaluated the evidence and made clear that he believed the record did not support Mr. Crowe's claims. Accordingly, I would deny the petition.