§410.410 Total disability due to pneumoconiosis, including statutory presumption.

(a) Benefits are provided under the Act to coal miners "who are totally disabled due to pneumoconiosis arising out of employment in one or more of the Nation's coal mines," and to the eligible survivors of miners who are determined to have been totally disabled due to pneumoconiosis at the time of their death. (For benefits to the eligible survivors of miners whose deaths are determined to have been due to pneumoconiosis, see §410.450.)

(b) To establish entitlement to benefits on the basis of a coal miner's total disability due to pneumoconiosis, a claimant must submit the evidence necessary to establish: (1) That he is a coal miner, that he is totally disabled due to pneumoconiosis, and that his pneumoconiosis arose out of employment in the Nation's coal mines; or (2) that the deceased individual was a miner, that he was totally disabled due to pneumoconiosis at the time of his death, and that his pneumoconiosis arose out of employment in the Nation's coal mines.

(c) Total disability is defined in §410.412; the basic provision on determining the existence of pneumoconiosis is in §410.414; and the requirement that the pneumoconiosis must have arisen out of coal mine employment is in §410.416. The statutory presumptions with respect to the burden of proving the foregoing are in §§410.414(b), 410.416(a), and 410.418, and the provision for determining the existence of total disability when the presumption in §410.418 does not apply is included in §410.422.