Burrows v. North Dakota Workers' Compensation Bureau
Decision Date | 05 January 1994 |
Docket Number | No. 930176,930176 |
Citation | 510 N.W.2d 617 |
Parties | Dorothy BURROWS, Appellee, v. NORTH DAKOTA WORKERS' COMPENSATION BUREAU, Appellant, and The City of Sheyenne, North Dakota, Respondent. Civ. |
Court | North Dakota Supreme Court |
Dean J. Haas, Asst. Atty. Gen., North Dakota Workers' Compensation Bureau, Bismarck, for appellant.
Mike Miller of Solberg, Stewart, Boulger, Miller & Johnson, Fargo, for appellee.
James Burrows, a 31-year law enforcement officer and a 40-year smoker, died of lung cancer. The North Dakota Workers Compensation Bureau denied death benefits because the lung cancer was caused by smoking and not law enforcement work.
The district court reversed the bureau, holding the bureau had to prove Burrows had lung cancer before he entered law enforcement. We reverse the district court decision and hold: (1) the bureau's medical evidence was sufficient to overcome the statutory presumption that Burrows' cancer was occupational, and (2) the bureau was not required to prove Burrows' cancer preexisted employment.
In August 1989, James Burrows was diagnosed as suffering from small cell lung carcinoma. He died from lung cancer on March 8, 1990. Prior to his death, he was employed as Chief of Police in Sheyenne, North Dakota, for over thirty-one years. He had smoked one and one-half packs of cigarettes a day for forty years.
After the death of her husband, Dorothy Burrows filed an application for death benefits with the bureau. The bureau dismissed the application. Dorothy Burrows timely petitioned for rehearing. The bureau's administrative hearing officer held Chief Burrows was a full-time paid law enforcement officer entitled to the N.D.C.C. Sec. 65-01-02(17)(d) (Supp.1989) presumption: 1
The hearing officer concluded the bureau successfully rebutted the statutory presumption and dismissed Dorothy Burrows' application for death benefits.
Dorothy Burrows appealed to the district court. The district court held the evidence was sufficient to rebut the statutory presumption Chief Burrows' cancer was due to employment. The district court, however, reversed the bureau's denial of benefits. The court held under N.D.C.C. Sec. 65-01-02(17)(d) the bureau must prove Chief Burrows' disease preexisted his employment. The bureau could not prove and did not claim the cancer was preexisting.
Skjefte v. Job Service North Dakota, 392 N.W.2d 815 (N.D.1986), sets the appropriate standard of review:
Skjefte at 817-18 (citations omitted, footnote omitted).
In Sunderland v. N.D. Workmen's Comp. Bureau, 370 N.W.2d 549, 552 (N.D.1985), we explained the effect of the N.D.C.C. Sec. 65-01-02(17)(d) presumption in favor of firefighters and law enforcement officers:
(Citations omitted.)
Citing Sunderland, Dorothy Burrows contends the bureau has not presented sufficient evidence to rebut the statutory presumption. In Sunderland, the claimant sought death benefits for her husband who had been employed as a police officer for thirty-six years. Clarence Sunderland died of lung cancer after being a one pack-a-day smoker for forty years. The bureau denied benefits, claiming carcinoma of the lung was not included in the statutory presumption as a "respiratory disease;" the evidence showed Clarence Sunderland's cancer was in no way related to his occupation; and a causal connection between his employment and his injury was not established.
In Sunderland, we reversed the bureau's decision. We held lung cancer is a respiratory disease under the statute and the weight of the evidence did not support the bureau's finding that the cancer was not occupational. We held, as a matter of law, the bureau erred in concluding it was the claimant's burden to establish a link between the employment and the cancer. We held the burden is on the bureau to prove the lung cancer was more probably caused by smoking, rather than by work as a police officer.
The record in this case is distinguishable from Sunderland. In Sunderland, the bureau relied on a letter from a doctor, stating the cancer was not caused by the occupation. The doctor concluded:
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