Federal Black Lung Fatal Claim Petition Denied.

We successfully defended a fatal claim petition filed by the widow of a coal miner who had been awarded benefits for totally disabling coal workers’ pneumoconiosis in 1984. Despite the fact the miner had been collecting temporary total disability benefits from 1984 until the time of his death in 2016, we were able to present credible and persuasive medical evidence to the Workers’ Compensation Judge that coal workers’ pneumoconiosis was not a substantial contributing factor to the miner’s death. The fatal claim petition was denied.