ALJ GERAGHTY AWARDS CLAIMANT PERMANENT AND PARTIAL DISABILITY COMPENSATION

DENNIS A. KEENER v. ELECTRIC BOAT CORPORATION and SENESCO, INC
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Excerpts

The Claimant and Electric Boat offered the following stipulations: (1) the Longshore Act

applies to the claim; (2) there was an employer/employee relationship at the time of the injury;
(3) the claim was timely filed; (4) the notice of controversion was timely filed; (5) the average
weekly wage at the time of the injury at EB was $883.48; and (6) the informal conference was
held on March 2, 2011. CL & EB JX 1; see also TR 5-6.

Senesco stipulated to the following: (1) the Longshore Act applies to the claim; (2) the

informal conference was held on March 2, 2011. TR 7-9. The issues in dispute are: (1) whether the Claimant sustained an injury to his neck in the course of his employment at EB; (2) has any neck injury/condition been aggravated by Claimant’s employment at Senseco; and (3) the nature and extent of the disability.

Conclusion
As the presumption has been rebutted, I must now weigh all of the evidence to determine
whether the Claimant has established that his injury is causally related to his employment at
Electric Boat. The opinions of the medical experts Drs. Morgan and Willetts differ on this key
issue. After careful consideration, I credit the opinion of Dr. Willetts over that of Dr. Morgan.Dr. Willetts examined the Claimant on several occasions. He is familiar with Claimant’s work activities at Electric Boat. Moreover, Dr. Morgan’s discounting of Claimant’s work in which he repetitively snapped his neck forward to flip the face shield of his welding helmet down as a contributing factor in his degenerative disc disease is inconsistent with Dr. Morgan's testimony that the neck degeneration results from holding and moving the neck over time. Repeatedly snapping one’s neck forward to flip a welding shield down certainly qualifies as moving the neckover time, which Dr. Morgan views as contributing to the degenerative condition. Additionally,Dr. Morgan appears to ignore the effects of Claimant’s bumping his head numerous times onoverhead beams during his years at Electric Boat, whereas, Dr. Willetts explained that doing so puts significant force and stress on the neck. Accordingly, I find that Claimant has proven by a preponderance of the evidence that his cervical spine condition is causally related to his duties at
Electric Boat.