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Ventura County Firefighter members of Local 1364 saved four people after their vehicle became trapped in an overflown creek bed they had tried to cross. The members are part of the department's Swift Water Rescue team.
The California Supreme Court denied the County of Ventura's petition
to review a panel decision stating that a Ventura County firefighter's
breast cancer is work-related.
The high court denied the county's petition for review in the case of
County of Ventura v. WCAB (Bastian). The county sought to challenge a
Workers' Compensation Appeals Board panel decision, which determined
that the firefighters' presumption of compensability applied to Sandy
Bastian's breast cancer claim.
The county had argued that the agreed medical evaluator's (AME)
testimony rebutted the presumption that the condition was compensable.
However, this did not persuade the WCAB panel, which noted that the
AME, Dr. Randolph Noble, "only opined that he was not prepared to say
that the (Labor Code) Section 3212.1 presumption of industrial
causation applied because he had not seen any studies that
definitively showed a link between a female firefighter's exposure to
carcinogens on the job and the later development of breast cancer."
Commissioner James Cuneo, the author of the panel decision, explained,
"In short, the presumption of industrial causation contained in
Section 3212.1 is not rebutted by showing that there are no studies
showing a link between exposure to a carcinogen and the development of
the type of cancer at issue, or by showing that the cancer could have
been caused by something else."
Cuneo clarified that in order to rebut the presumption of industrial
causation, LC 3212.1 requires a defendant to show that the cancer in
question is "not reasonably linked" to the exposure.
The employer had filed a petition for a writ of review with the 2nd
District Court of Appeal, but the appellate court denied the petition
on April 1. The state Supreme Court denied review on May 20.
In memory of our fallen Brother Fire Control Worker and Local 1364 member Bryan Banister
Brother Banister was killed when his vehicle became disabled while traveling on I-5 to San Francisco. Bryan and his vehicle were struck by another vehicle that left the road for unknown reasons. Also killed was Rigoberto Gomez Cortez, a good Samaritan that came to Bryan's aid. Representatives from Local 1364 and VCFD attended Mr. Cortez funeral and provide assistance to his family. Like our brother Bryan, The man that lost his life coming to his aid will not be forgotten.
