City of Eugene v. McCann

To establish the existence of an “occupational disease” that is compensable under the Workers’ Compensation Law, a claimant ordinarily “must prove that employment conditions were the major contributing cause of the disease.” ORS 656.802(2)(a). In some circumstances, however, firefighters do not have the burden to prove causation. Instead, the “firefighters’ presumption” deems certain medical conditions to presumptively have been caused by employment when those conditions are suffered by individuals who have worked as firefighters for at least five years:

“Death, disability or impairment of…