After briefly weighing in to reinstate a former coal miner’s long-term disability benefits in March, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit released a detailed precedential opinion this week concluding that the worker’s termination of benefits was not based on substantial evidence or the correct job title.
The court sided with Fairfax, Virginia, personal injury firm Ben Glass Law, which represented injured mine employee Timothy Mullins in a dispute over benefits against CONSOL Energy’s long-term disability benefits, represented by attorneys from Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney. Mullins, who suffered an ankle stress fracture, appealed a 2020 final adverse disability benefits determination regarding an Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 plan administered by Lincoln Financial Group, which concluded that Mullins failed to demonstrate “total disability” as he didn’t prove that he could not conduct any suitable sedentary occupation.
