By Hon. Susan V. Hamilton, Former Assistant Secretary and Deputy Commissioner, California Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board Over the past several decades California has implemented broad legislative...
CALIFORNIA COMPENSATION CASES Vol. 89, No. 9 September 2024 A Report of En Banc and Significant Panel Decisions of the WCAB and Selected Court Opinions of Related Interest, With a Digest of WCAB Decisions...
By Thomas A. Robinson, co-author, Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law Editorial Note: All section references below are to Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, unless otherwise indicated...
By Hon. Colleen Casey, Former Commissioner, California Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board One of the most common reasons evaluating physicians flunk the apportionment validity test is due to their...
Position paper presented at CSIMS 2024 by Hon. Robert G. Rassp, Chairman of the Board of Directors, Friends Research Institute (friendsresearch.org) Disclaimers: The opinions expressed in this article...
A Tacoma firefighter, who contended that he had contracted valley fever after inhaling fungal spores while responding to emergency calls on Interstate 5 in Washington state—he alleged the spores were transported by vehicles traveling north from California—is not entitled to the firefighters presumption related to respiratory diseases contained in Wash. Rev. Code § 51.21.185(1), held the Supreme Court of Washington, in a split decision. Valley fever is a fungal infection endemic to the desert southwest, including Nevada and especially California’s San Joaquin Valley. The firefighter fell ill shortly after returning from a trip to Las Vegas. He contended that he had acquired a “respiratory disease” and that the statutory presumption favoring firefighters required the employer to show some cause other than the employment. The majority disagreed, indicating the legislature had intended that the presumption cover respiratory diseases caused by exposure to smoke, fumes, and chemicals—hazards pervasive in fighting fires. The majority reasoned that smoke, fumes and chemicals did not cause valley fever.
Thomas A. Robinson, J.D., the Feature National Columnist for the LexisNexis Workers’ Compensation eNewsletter, is the co-author of Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law (LexisNexis).
LexisNexis Online Subscribers: Citations below link to Lexis Advance. Bracketed citations link to lexis.com.
See Gorre v. City of Tacoma, 2015 Wash. LEXIS 898 (Aug. 27, 2015) [2015 Wash. LEXIS 898 (Aug. 27, 2015)]
See generally Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, § 52.07 [52.07]
For a more detailed discussion of the case, see http://www.workcompwriter.com/washington-high-court-says-valley-fever-is-not-covered-by-firefighters-presumption/
Source: Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, the nation’s leading authority on workers’ compensation law.
For more information about LexisNexis products and solutions connect with us through our corporate site