Printing - FECA-PT2 - National Association of Letter Carriers

. Claimant. The claimant is responsible for giving notice of death (5 U.S.C. 8119) and has
the burden of proving a relationship between an employee's death and factors of Federal
employment. Except where the relationship between the death and the employment is obvious,
the claimant must present medical evidence relating the death to the injury. See Bernice W.
Curtis, surviving wife of Oscar Lee Curtis (1ECAB 95), and Rose Martin, claiming as widow of Bruce
Martin (24 ECAB 243).
c. Employing Agency. Section 5 U.S.C. 8128 requires the employing agency to report to
OWCP any injury resulting in death, and to provide such supplementary reports as OWCP may
require. The agency should be asked to assist in compiling and submitting evidence required from
the claimant and witnesses except where adjudication occurs long after the decedent has been
removed from the agency's rolls, and the agency no longer retains records of the decedent's
employment. The claimant or OWCP must obtain statements from witnesses no longer on the
agency's rolls.
2-0700-5 Initial Processing
5. Initial Processing.
a. Reports of Death and Claim for Compensation. When an employee dies in the performance
of duty, the employing agency must report the death immediately to OWCP by telephone or telefax
so that an autopsy may be considered. As soon as possible, the agency must complete and submit
Form CA-6, Official Superior's Report of Employee's Death. In accordance with 5 U.S.C. 8119, an
eligible beneficiary specified in 5 U.S.C. 8133 or someone acting in his or her behalf must give
notice of death on Form CA-5 or CA-5b. A death case will be created upon receipt of any such
message or forms.
b. Timeliness. Survivors must give written notice within 30 days of the date of death, but the
timely filing of a disability claim will satisfy the time requirements for a death claim based on the
same injury as long as the claim is filed during the dependent's lifetime. This provision does not
apply to the dependent's heirs or estate (see Ned C. Lofton (John C. Lofton), 33 ECAB 1497).
(1) For an injury occurring on or after September 7, 1974, the time requirements are
also satisfied if the immediate supervisor had actual knowledge of the death within 30 days,
provided the knowledge was such as to put him or her reasonably on notice of an
employment- related death.
(2) If written notice was not given, or the immediate supervisor did not have actual
knowledge of the death within 30 days, or a timely disability claim was not filed for the
injury on which the death claim is based, compensation benefits may not be allowed unless
an original claim for death benefits was filed within three years after the death, or within
three years of the date the claimant was aware, or reasonably should have been aware,
that the death was due to an employment-related disease.
FECA-PT2 Printed: 06/08/2010 99