No. 00973489 (1999). EMPLOYEE: Lester Bates.

• Case Date: March 22, 1999
• Court: Massachusetts

Massachusetts Workers Compensation 1999. No. 00973489 (1999). EMPLOYEE: Lester Bates COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS DEPARTMENT OF INDUSTRIAL ACCIDENTS EMPLOYEE: Lester Bates EMPLOYER: City of Beverly SELF-INSURER: City of Beverly BOARD NO. 00973489REVIEWING BOARD DECISION (Judges Levine, Carroll and Maze-Rothstein) APPEARANCES Richard E. Daly, Esq., for the employee Michael C. Lauranzano, Esq., for the self-insurer at hearing Paul M. Moretti, Esq., for the self-insurer on appeal LEVINE, J. Lester Bates, sixty-six years old at the time of hearing, suffered a myocardial infarction at work on August 19, 1975. (Dec. 4, 6.) The self-insurer accepted liability for this injury and paid § 34 temporary total incapacity benefits until his return to work on January 20, 1976. (Dec. 5, 6.) The employee returned to work on a part-time basis but eventually resumed his full-time work. (Dec. 6.) On January 28, 1977 he suffered a second myocardial infarction while at home. (Dec. 7.) In the interim between his first and second infarctions, the employee was laid off by his employer in a cost-cutting effort. Id. The employee filed a claim for benefits for the second myocardial infarction; the self-insurer denied the claim. (Dec. 4.) A conference was held on October 13, 1989; the administrative judge denied the employee's claim. Id. The employee appealed to a hearing de novo. Id. A hearing was held on April 5, 1990. On June 13, 1990, the judge issued a decision denying and dismissing the employee's claim; he was not persuaded that the employee's second myocardial infarction was causally related to the first accepted myocardial infarction. (Dec. 11.) The employee has appealed that decision. Through no fault of either party a hearing transcript cannot be produced. 1 Without a transcript, we are unable to perform our appellate function. Where a transcript cannot be produced, either fully or partially, due process requires reconstruction of the record sufficient to allow for evaluation of the merits of the appeal and the correctness of the rulings. Fitzsimmons v. Sigma Instruments, Inc., 7 Mass. Workers' Comp. Rep. 12 (1993). It is not necessary that reconstruction be total. Rather, there need only be so...