Slone v. R & S MINING, INC.

OPINION OF THE COURT

This workers’ compensation appeal concerns whether a worker who sustained no exposure to coal dust after July, 1990, and whose claim for occupational disease benefits was dismissed in 1991 for insufficient evidence should have been permitted to reopen the claim in 2000 because he presented evidence of a higher disease category and respiratory impairment than he introduced in the initial claim.

The claimant’s 1991 application for benefits alleged a last exposure to coal dust on June 1, 1990. Although two physicians reported category 1/0 disease, four physicians reported…