Opinion ID: 719804
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Special Fund Relief

Text: 15 The LHWCA, 33 U.S.C. § 908(f), provides that where an employee is permanently disabled and the disability is found not to be caused solely by the injury incurred on the job, the employer's liability is limited to a maximum of 104 weeks, after which time liability is borne by the special fund established by 33 U.S.C. § 944. E.P. Paup Co. v. Director, OWCP, 999 F.2d 1341, 1352 (9th Cir.1993). To establish entitlement to special fund relief, the employer must demonstrate: 16 (1) that the employee had an existing permanent partial disability prior to the employment injury; (2) that the disability was manifest to the employer prior to the employment injury; and (3) that the current disability is not due solely to the most recent inquiry. 17 Id. (internal quotations omitted). 18 SSA requested special fund relief under section 908(f) based on medical evidence that Sproull had earlier suffered a hand injury. The only issue on appeal is whether SSA established the third requirement, namely that Sproull's prior injury contributes to his current disability. 19 The ALJ found that Sproull's prior injury does contribute to his current shoulder injury, reasoning as follows: 20 Taking into consideration [Sproull's] testimony that in performing his work on the dock he has learned to use mostly his right arm and hand in handling slings, as well as the self-evident inter-relationship between the use of the hand, grip-strength and shoulder in his post-injury dock work, ... and the recency of his 1983 left hand injury immediately prior to returning to work before the 1985 left shoulder injury, I find that [Sproull] had a pre-existing permanent partial disability within the meaning of the Act prior to his 1985 shoulder injury, and that his permanent partial disability resulting after the 1985 injury is materially and substantially greater than would have resulted from the latter injury alone. 21 The Board reversed, reasoning that there are no medical opinions of record stating that [Sproull's] current disability is contributed to by his prior hand injury. Nothing in the LHWCA, however, requires employers to submit medical opinions to establish the contribution requirement, and we decline to create such a requirement. Rather, we conclude that SSA was entitled to establish the contribution requirement by medical or other evidence. See Director, OWCP v. Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Co., 8 F.3d 175, 185 (4th Cir.1993), affirmed, --- U.S. ----, 115 S.Ct. 1278, 131 L.Ed.2d 160 (1995); Director, OWCP v. Luccitelli, 964 F.2d 1303, 1306 (2d Cir.1992). The Board therefore erred by reversing the ALJ's grant of special fund relief.