Vision Mining, Inc. v. Gardner

Opinion of the Court by

Justice SCOTT.

Notwithstanding their 37 and 34 years’ work in underground coal mines, the Workers’ Compensation Board affirmed decisions to dismiss both Appellants’ applications for benefits because the “consensus readings” of their X-rays interpreted them to be negative for coal workers’ pneumoco-niosis (black lung).1 On review, however, two separate Court of Appeals’ panels held the “consensus procedure” required by KRS 342.316 for proving the existence of coal workers’ pneumoconiosis and the “clear and convincing” standard the statute requires to rebut such a…