Successful defense of Federal Black Lung Benefits claim.

We successfully defended a survivor’s claim for Federal Black Lung Benefits. The miner had worked 11 years in underground mining, had acknowledged simple coal workers’ pneumoconiosis (CWP), and died due to heart failure and COPD (per the death certificate). The judge credited the opinions of our medical expert that the miner’s simple CWP did not cause or hasten his death, and rejected the opinions of the claimant’s medical expert, who opined that the miner’s CWP resulted in inflammation and arteriosclerosis that resulted in his heart failure and death.