Where an administrative law judge and the Benefits Review Board held that a coal miner was required to show a 365-day employment relationship with his employer during each year for which he sought credit towards the Black Lung Benefits Act’s 15-year presumption, they erred. A miner need show only that he worked 125 working days in a coal mine within a calendar year (or partial periods totaling one year) to establish a year of employment for purposes of the 15-year presumption.
Coal miners seeking benefits under the Black Lung Benefits Act, or BLBA, may rely on a rebuttable presumption that their diagnosis of pneumonoconiosis resulted from their work in the coal mines by establishing that they were employed for 15 years or more in underground coal mines. The administrative law judge, or ALJ, and the Benefits Review Board both interpreted § 725.101(a)(32) and its subsections to require that the miner show a 365-day employment relationship with his employer during each year for which petitioner seeks credit towards the BLBA’s 15-year presumption.
This court joins the Sixth Circuit in holding that the plain language of § 725.101(a)(32) requires a miner to show only that he worked 125 working days in a coal mine within a calendar year (or partial periods totaling one year) to establish a year of employment for purposes of the BLBA’s 15-year presumption. This reading of the regulation’s text comports with the BLBA’s expressly remedial purpose and the...
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