KEN LICK COAL COMPANY; AMERICAN RESOURCES CORPORATION v. DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF WORKERS’ COMPENSATION PROGRAMS, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR; MARY REED, widow of Bob Reed - Articles

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KEN LICK COAL COMPANY; AMERICAN RESOURCES CORPORATION v. DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF WORKERS’ COMPENSATION PROGRAMS, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR; MARY REED, widow of Bob Reed

Posted by: Azya Thornton on Feb 21, 2025

Court: 6th Circuit Court (Published Opinions)

Attorneys 1: ARGUED: Michael A. Pusateri, GREENBERG TRAURIG, LLP, Washington, D.C., for Petitioners.

Attorneys 2: ARGUED: Michael P. Doyle, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF LABOR, Washington, D.C., for Federal Respondent.

Attorneys 3: ON BRIEF: Michael A. Pusateri, Mark E. Solomons, GREENBERG TRAURIG, LLP, Washington, D.C., for Petitioners.

Attorneys 4: ON BRIEF: Michael P. Doyle, Ann Marie Scarpino, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF LABOR, Washington, D.C., for Federal Respondent.

Judge(s): SUTTON, Chief Judge; LARSEN and MURPHY, Circuit Judges

Court Appealed: Petition for Review from the Benefits Review Board

MURPHY, Circuit Judge. A regulation implementing the Black Lung Benefits Act allows coal miners to file a second claim for benefits after their first claim has been denied if they identify changed circumstances. 20 C.F.R. § 725.309(c). When miners show such a change, the regulation generally allows the parties to relitigate all issues in the proceedings over the second claim. Id. § 725.309(c)(5). Yet it adds that a “stipulation” that a party “made” when litigating the first claim “will be binding” in those later proceedings. Id. That provision proved critical in this case. An administrative law judge required Ken Lick Coal Company to pay a miner’s benefits solely because of a stipulation the company allegedly made when litigating the miner’s earlier claim. But we hold that this purported “stipulation” addressed the law rather than the facts, so the judge had the power to disregard it. And the judge made clear that he would not have required Ken Lick to pay the benefits but for the stipulation. We thus grant Ken Lick’s petition for review and transfer the liability on the miner’s claim to the Black Lung Disability Trust Fund. We grant Ken Lick’s petition for review and order the Trust Fund to pay Reed’s benefits.

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