# Peabody Coal Company and Old Republic Insurance Company v. Lessie L. Helms and Director, Office of Workers' Compensation Programs

> Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit · October 4, 1988 · 859 F.2d 486

URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9478263

## Case

- **Full name:** PEABODY COAL COMPANY and Old Republic Insurance Company, Petitioners, v. Lessie L. HELMS and Director, Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs, Respondents
- **Court:** Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
- **Decided:** October 4, 1988
- **Citations:** 859 F.2d 486; 1988 U.S. App. LEXIS 14041; 1988 WL 106937
- **Precedential status:** Published
- **Opinion:** Concurrence by Will
- **Judges:** Posner, Coffey, Will
- **Cited by:** 40 later opinions in the Frix Law Library

## Citator (automated)

- No negative treatment found by the automated citator. That is not the same as a confirmation that the case is good law; read the citing cases.
- Full citator and citing cases: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9478263

## How later opinions describe it (automated extraction)

- reversing because the administrative law judge erroneously regarded a physician's opinion on causation as equivocal
- noting with approval physician's statement that "shortness of breath can be a symptom of heart disease and . . .[claimant's] heart disease was not related to his coal mine employment"
- noting with approval physician’s statement that “shortness of breath can be a symptom of heart disease and ... [claimant’s] heart disease was not related to his coal miné employment”

## Opinion text

WILL, Senior District Judge,
concurring.
I agree that, because the AU did not in his decision, as he should have, consider the medical opinions of Dr. Getty and Wilhel-mus on the ground that they were given three years before Helms’ blood gas studies, the case must be remanded for consideration of all the medical evidence. I write separately, however, because the majority opinion so strongly emphasizes the defendant’s evidence that it may be misunderstood as a peremptory direction to the AU to find for the defendant.
The statute is clear that if Helms’ undisputed total disability is “in whole or in part” a result of his coal mine employment or that, as we have said previously in Wetherill v. Director, OWCP, 812 F.2d 376, 380 (7th Cir.1987), pneumoconiosis was “a contributing cause” of his disability he is entitled to compensation under the Act.
We do not here decide that it was not. We do decide that the AU must make that determination in the light of all the medical evidence.

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Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9478263. Public record. Not legal advice.