Opinion ID: 487445
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: 30 U.S.C. Sec. 902(f)(2)

Text: 28 The issue raised by this appeal is one of statutory construction. The respondent argues that the term criteria in Sec. 902(f)(2) infra refers only to medical criteria whereas the petitioner maintains that Congress intended the term to include evidentiary rules and adjudicatory standards as well. If the petitioner is correct, then she is clearly entitled to the benefit of the interim presumption of total disability for Part B claims at 20 C.F.R. Sec. 410.490(b), and her claim for benefits was wrongly denied contrary to Sec. 902(f)(2). If, on the other hand, the respondent is correct that the Sec. 902(f)(2) prohibition extends only to medical criteria, then the petitioner's claim was properly adjudicated under the Part C interim presumption at 20 C.F.R. Sec. 727.203(a), and the Board's order denying her benefits must be affirmed. 29 Although the question presented is one of first impression in this Circuit, both the Third and Eighth Circuits have previously interpreted Sec. 902(f)(2). In Halon v. Director, OWCP, 713 F.2d 21 (3d Cir.1983), the Third Circuit, over a strong dissent by Judge Weis, held that the criteria referred to in Sec. 902(f)(2) were intended to include adjudicatory standards as well as medical standards. The court concluded that the plain language of the statute does not suggest that Congress intended any such modification of the generic term 'criteria,'  and characterized the legislative history as at best, equivocal. Id. at 24. The Eighth Circuit, in Coughlan v. Director, OWCP, 757 F.2d 966, 968 (8th Cir.1985), essentially adopted the position of the Third Circuit, commenting that the construction urged by the Department here has little to recommend it. 30 We cannot agree with the conclusion reached by these two courts. When Sec. 902(f) is read as a whole, the plain language of the statute in no way unambiguously suggests that the term criteria was intended to be generic. Subsection (f) provides in part: 31 (f)(1) The term total disability has the meaning given it by regulations of the Secretary of Health and Human Services for claims under Part B of this subchapter, and by regulations of the Secretary of Labor for claims under Part C of this subchapter    except that-- 32