Supreme Court Upholds Denial of Benefits to Worker for Hearing Loss

The West Virginia Supreme Court upheld a denial of benefits to a worker for his hearing loss, since he did not submit any valid audiometric testing. Larry Ballard signed a report of occupational hearing loss in February 2019. He claimed his date of last exposure was May 2017 and that he had hearing loss caused by operating equipment in underground coal mines and a belt line. The last underground mine work he performed was for Superior Elite Coal Services in 2015. He further stated that he was made aware that he had noise-induced hearing loss on Jan. 22, 2019, when he was evaluated ...