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Wednesday, June 02, 2004

Law - Significant Kentucky Court of Appeals Black Lung Evidence Ruling

According to this story today in the Louisville Courier-Journal, the Kentucky Court of Appeals has ruled that "Kentucky's black lung law unfairly limits the amount of X-ray evidence a coal miner can use in trying to prove a case for workers' compensation." More:

The ruling, issued Friday, was made by the entire 14-member court. The case pitted Gordon Bartrum against the Workers' Compensation Board, an administrative law judge and Bartrum's employer, Hunter Excavating.

At issue was a section of the law that allows a black-lung claimant and the claimant's employer to each submit a single lung X-ray and physician's report. If findings differ, the X-rays are submitted to three randomly selected experts known as "B" readers for a consensus ruling that is legally presumed correct.

Bartrum, who lost his claim, had submitted three X-rays, but a law judge permitted the use of just one. On appeal, Bartrum said the restriction violated his constitutional right to legal due process. The appeals court agreed.

Writing for the majority, Judge William Knopf of Louisville said limits imposed by the General Assembly and the board on the number of X-rays and readings admissible to rebut the "B" readers "violates the parties' constitutional right to a fair hearing."

In a separate opinion, Judge Wilfrid Schroder said the problem was not the law but administrative rules governing these cases. The rule on filing X-ray evidence "exceeds its statutory authority," Schroder said.

The appeals court reversed the ruling of the Workers' Compensation Board and sent Bartrum's case back for further proceedings.

Unfortunately, the 2004 opinions of the Kentucky Court of Appeals do not appear to be available online.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on June 2, 2004 08:24 AM
Posted to General Law Related