The difference between a specific injury and cumulative injury - HRD America

by Bernise Carolino

Wed, Jul 19, 2023 10:25 ET

in Press Release

Workers' compensation panel deals with case of firefighter who died due to lung cancer

In a recent case, a firefighter died apparently due to the culmination of the industrial lung cancer that developed as a result of his career and not because of a specific injury, a worker’s compensation panel found.

In September 2021, a workers’ compensation administrative law judge held that the firefighter – while employed by the County of Ventura’s fire department – succumbed to the effects of cancer arising out of and in the course of his employment. He died on Oct. 18, 2018.

The judge found that the firefighter’s widow was a total dependant but that their two adult sons, Anthony and Alejandro, were neither total nor partial dependants.

The widow filed a petition for reconsideration. She alleged the following:

The judge should have relied on evidence about the firefighter’s date of injury in late 2016 to determine the issues.
Anthony proved that he was a total dependant through credible testimony and through documentary evidence showing that he had no earnings in 2015 and 2016.
The possibility that Anthony lived for short periods of time in other locations where he supposedly had unreported earnings was irrelevant.
Alejandro was a partial dependant, as shown by the trial testimony.
Alejandro’s and her own testimony proved persistent financial need despite regular earnings.
Alejandro used funds from his late father to pay for customary daily living expenses.