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.

Judge to revisit the...

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