Kniss v. Public Employees Retirement Board

The Public Employees Retirement Board (board) denied claimant’s request for disability retirement benefits on the ground that he had failed to establish that employment was the cause of his coronary arteiy disease. Claimant seeks review, arguing that the board erred in requiring him to prove that employment was more than merely a contributing factor to his disease. We affirm.

We take the facts from the board’s final order. Claimant worked as a firefighter for the City of Beaverton, a participating employer in the Public Employee Retirement System (PERS), from 1978 to 1998. He was promoted to…