J. W. Beck v. F. David Mathews, Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare

The district court granted summary judgment affirming a decision of the Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare (the Secretary) denying Beck’s claim for black lung disability benefits under the Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act, 30 U.S.C. §§ 901-961 (the Black Lung Act or the Act). Beck appeals pursuant to the provisions of 28 U.S.C. § 1291 and 28 U.S.C. § 1915 . We also affirm.

Beck was born in 1919. The evidence is not clear regarding when he began working in the coal mines — it was some time between 1934 and 1937. He ceased working as a coal miner in 1942. From some time in the forties until 1965, he worked about twenty years as a cupola tender in a foundry. In 1965 he filed for and was awarded social security disability benefits on the basis of bronchial asthma and pulmonary emphysema. In 1972 he applied for coal miner’s benefits, alleging that his respiratory problems were the result of his early mining employment; i. e., that he was suffering from pneumoconiosis as defined in Section 402(b) of the Black Lung Act, 30 U.S.C. § 902 (b).

Because he could not prove he had worked ten years or more in the nation’s coal mines, it could not be presumed under Section…