Home/Sixth Circuit/Paul Dickson v. Joseph A. Califano, Jr., Successor to David Mathews, Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare

Paul Dickson v. Joseph A. Califano, Jr., Successor to David Mathews, Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare

590 F.2d 616
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
DecidedFebruary 15, 1979
Docket77-3054
StatusPublished
Cited by28 cases

This text of 590 F.2d 616 (Paul Dickson v. Joseph A. Califano, Jr., Successor to David Mathews, Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Paul Dickson v. Joseph A. Califano, Jr., Successor to David Mathews, Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, 590 F.2d 616 (6th Cir. 1979).

Opinion

EDWARDS, Circuit Judge.

Appellant Dickson appeals from denial of black lung disability benefits by the Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, and affirmance of that denial by a United States District Judge who held it was supported by substantial evidence. These decisions have been entered in spite of the facts that 1) the Administrative Law Judge found that Dickson was suffering from a disabling, chronic lung condition, 2) government documentary evidence shows that he worked in the mines during each of 13 calendar years and 43 calendar quarters, thus apparently being entitled to the 10-year statutory presumption, 30 U.S.C. § 921(c)(1) (1976) and 20 C.F.R. § 410.-490(b)(3) (1978), and 3) appellant had presented evidence from a Board certified physician who read X-rays as showing pneumoconiosis and found him totally disabled thereby.

We reverse for award of benefits.

*618 THE TEN-YEAR PRESUMPTION ISSUE

The Administrative Law Judge, the Secretary and the District Judge all held in effect that appellant was not entitled to the presumption which Congress created for the benefit of miners who had worked 10 years in the mines, 30 U.S.C. § 921(c)(1) (1976) and 20 C.F.R. § 410.490(b)(3) (1978).

Our review of this record shows that this conclusion is not supported by substantial evidence.

Appellant, now 60 years old, testified that he had gone to work in the mines in 1936 and had been employed as a miner until 1953, when he developed breathing difficulty and his doctor advised him to leave the mines. He worked in nonmining employment until 1974 when, he testified, he could not work any more due to breathing trouble. This application was first filed May 17, 1971. Initial denial by the Secretary was vacated for reconsideration under the 1972 Black Lung Benefits Act.

Appellant testified that he was born October 6, 1918, “got thru the second grade in school” and started working in the mines at 18 in 1936 and worked until 1954. He testified that he worked “part time” in the early years due to frequent shutdowns of the “truck mines” which employed him:

Q. Before you started working full-time, did you have some other part-time job that you were doing?
A. Well, in them little old truck mines they’d run awhile and they’d shut down awhile. You’d work awhile around the mines, and then you’d go find another job, whatever you could find doing — construction work, or timber work, or whatever you could find doing. Why, that’s what you done.
Q. Could you give me an estimate, sir, of approximately how much time you spent in the coal mines and how much time in this other work that you did before that?
A. Well now, then, in the wintertime you’d get 5 or 6 months.
Q. Of coal mining?
A. Of coal mining. And then in the summertime, why, them little truck mines would be out.
Q. Would it be about half and half then, would you say?
A. A little around half and half.

He also testified that, starting in the 1940’s, he worked full time for 11 or 12 years as a coal loader. He described his job as follows:

Q. Is that the only job you did?
A. Well, a coal loader — He drilled coal. He drilled and shot his own coal, and he set his own timbers, he loaded his coal, and he laid the last 12 foot of the track.

The official records of Social Security payments show 43 separate Social Security employment tax payments by 32 different employers in 42 different quarters extending over 13 calendar years, as follows:

*619

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590 F.2d 616, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/paul-dickson-v-joseph-a-califano-jr-successor-to-david-mathews-ca6-1979.