Merica I. Johnson v. Caspar Weinberger is one many cases filed against the Secretary of Health Education and Welfare seeking benefits under the status of "black lung." Black lung, a term used for pneumoconiosis arising out of coal mime employment, was a condition contracted by hundreds of mine workers. Merica Johnson's husband Leo, a World War II Navy veteran, worked for Inland Steel in Wheelwright, Kentucky for seventeen years. He died on the job at age forty-six, and his wife never received disability compensation.