Court Opinion

ID: 9516392
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-06 23:41:50.676865+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:35:31.919503
License: Public Domain

HAMILTON, Senior Circuit Judge,
concurring in part and dissenting in part.
I agree with the holding in the majority opinion that the Board did not err in affirming the ALJ’s finding that Clyde Breeding had worked at least fifteen years in coal mine employment, thus entitling him to a rebuttable presumption of total disability due to pneumoconiosis under 20 C.F.R. § 718.305. However, I disagree with the opinion’s holding that the last of four different ALJs to have reviewed this case erred in his weighing of the medical evidence submitted to rebut this presumption. My review of the record reveals no such error. Accordingly, I concur in Parts I and II of the majority opinion, but dissent from Part III. I would affirm the award of benefits in favor of Delta Breeding, thus putting to an end a controversy that has shamefully lasted some twenty-two years.