Court Opinion

ID: 9963129
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2024-04-24 17:01:27.890309+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T08:24:41.355127
License: Public Domain

NOT PRECEDENTIAL

                    UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
                         FOR THE THIRD CIRCUIT
                              _____________

                                    No. 23-1481
                                   _____________

                  KEYSTONE COAL MINING CORPORATION;
                    CONSOL ENERGY, INCORPORATED,
                                        Petitioners
                                  v.

      DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF WORKERS’ COMPENSATION PROGRAMS,
     UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF LABOR; MICHAEL W. CHONCEK
                           _____________

                          On Petition for Review of an
                      Order of the Benefits Review Board
                       (Agency Case No. 22-00153 BLA)
                    Administrative Law Judge: Drew A. Swank
                                 _____________

                              Argued April 3, 2024

             Before: RESTREPO, MATEY and McKEE, Circuit Judges.

                              (Filed: April 24, 2024)
                                  _____________

Christopher L. Wildfire [ARGUED]
Toni Williams
Sutter Williams
850 Ridge Avenue
Suite 300
Pittsburgh, PA 15212
       Counsel for Petitioners

Haley L. Carter [ARGUED]
Timothy C. MacDonnell [ARGUED]
Washington & Lee University School of Law
Room 106
1 E Denny Circle
Lexington, VA 24450
      Counsel for Respondent
                                     _____________

                                       OPINION *
                                     _____________

MATEY, Circuit Judge.

       Keystone Coal Mining Corporation and Consol Energy, Incorporated (together,

“Keystone”) petition for review of an order from the United States Department of Labor

Benefits Review Board (“Board”) affirming the decision of an Administrative Law Judge

(“ALJ”) to award disability benefits to Michael Choncek. Because the determination is

supported by substantial evidence and complies with applicable law, we will deny the

petition for review. 1

                                            I.

       Michael Choncek worked as an underground coal miner for over 20 years. In

2018, he filed a claim for benefits under the Black Lung Benefits Act, 30 U.S.C § 901 et

seq., for coal workers’ pneumoconiosis (“CWP”), or black lung disease. Responding, the

District Director of the Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs issued a proposed

decision and order awarding benefits. Keystone requested a formal hearing, and an ALJ

       *
        This disposition is not an opinion of the full Court and, pursuant to I.O.P. 5.7,
does not constitute binding precedent.
      1
        We thank the Washington and Lee University School of Law’s Advanced
Administrative Litigation Clinic, appearing on behalf of the Respondent, for its able and
zealous advocacy.

                                            2
confirmed the award. Following a remand by the Board, 2 the ALJ again found that

Choncek was totally disabled and again confirmed the benefits award. The Board

affirmed the ALJ’s decision, and Keystone now brings this petition for review. 3

                                            II.

       To qualify for CWP benefits, a claimant must prove that he has pneumoconiosis

from coal mine employment causing a totally disabling respiratory impairment. See 20

C.F.R. §§ 718.202–204. The claimant can invoke a rebuttable presumption of total

disability caused by pneumoconiosis if he worked in underground coal mines for at least

fifteen years, submitted a compliant chest X-ray that was negative for complicated

pneumoconiosis, and “other evidence demonstrates the existence of a totally disabling

respiratory or pulmonary impairment . . . .” App. 24; 30 U.S.C. § 921(c)(4). A totally

disabling respiratory or pulmonary impairment prevents a claimant from performing his

“usual coal mine work” or comparable employment. 20 C.F.R. § 718.204(b)(1).

                                            A.

       A claimant may prove total disability by submitting evidence that his pulmonary

function tests or arterial blood-gas tests yield qualifying values under the Department of

       2
          The Board held the ALJ erred by “not adequately address[ing] the specific
rationales for the opinions of” Keystone’s physician experts on legal pneumoconiosis and
“explain[ing] the weight he accorded them,” App. 57, and in finding Keystone failed to
establish that no part of Choncek’s disability was caused by pneumoconiosis.
        3
          We have jurisdiction over a petition for review of a final order of the Board
under 33 U.S.C. § 921(c). We review the Board’s decisions “for errors of law and to
assure that it has adhered to its own standard of review.” BethEnergy Mines Inc. v. Dir.,
Off. of Workers’ Comp. Programs, 39 F.3d 458, 462–63 (3d Cir. 1994). The ALJ’s
findings of fact are “conclusive if supported by substantial evidence in the record
considered as a whole.” 33 U.S.C. § 921(b)(3), as incorporated by 30 U.S.C. § 932(a).

                                             3
Labor’s regulations, or that he has been diagnosed with pneumoconiosis and cor

pulmonale (pulmonary heart disease) with right-sided congestive heart failure. See 20

C.F.R. § 718.204(b)(2)(i–iii). Even absent such evidence, however, total disability can

also be found “if a physician exercising reasoned medical judgment, based on medically

acceptable clinical and laboratory diagnostic techniques, concludes that a miner’s

respiratory or pulmonary condition” qualified the worker as totally disabled. 20 C.F.R.

§ 718.204(b)(2)(iv).

       Here, the ALJ found Choncek totally disabled based on the opinions of three of

the five medical experts offered and concluded that Choncek would be unable to perform

his usual work as a coal miner or something comparable. Keystone disagrees with the

“reasoned medical judgment” of these physicians on whom the ALJ relied. 20 C.F.R.

§ 718.204(b)(2)(iv). But we decline to reweigh this evidence. See Rutherford v. Barnhart,

399 F.3d 546, 552 (3d Cir. 2005) (“In the process of reviewing the record for substantial

evidence, we may not weigh the evidence or substitute our own conclusions for those of

the fact-finder.”) (cleaned up).

                                            B.

       Nor do we see error in the ALJ’s conclusion that “after considering all of the

evidence together,” App. 33, Keystone could not show Choncek had neither clinical nor

legal pneumoconiosis. 4 Again, Keystone contests the ALJ’s evidentiary analysis, but

       4
        Clinical pneumoconiosis is narrow, consisting “of those diseases recognized by
the medical community as pneumoconioses . . . .” 20 C.F.R. § 718.201(a)(1). Legal
pneumoconiosis is a broader term that “includes any chronic lung disease or impairment

                                             4
disagreement does not make the ALJ’s decision irrational or unsupported. And Keystone

did not demonstrate that “no part of [Choncek’s] respiratory or pulmonary total disability

was caused by pneumoconiosis.” 20 C.F.R. § 718.305(d)(1)(ii). Three of the medical

experts consulted by the ALJ attributed at least part of Choncek’s total pulmonary

disability to pneumoconiosis, while Keystone’s two medical experts “did not offer an

explanation” as to whether “pneumoconiosis caused [Choncek’s] total respiratory

disability.” App. 12 n.10. The ALJ’s decision to pick which evidence to credit, and which

to decline, is a discretionary function we will not disturb. See Rutherford, 399 F.3d at

552.

                                           ***

       For these reasons, we will deny the petition for review.

and its sequelae arising out of coal mine employment,” 20 C.F.R. § 718.201(a)(2), or that
is “significantly related to, or substantially aggravated by, dust exposure in coal mine
employment,” 20 C.F.R. § 718.201(b).

                                             5