Subsequent Injury Fund v. Industrial Claim Appeals Office

The Subsequent Injury Fund (SIF) appeals the final order of the Industrial Claim Appeals Office (Panel) awarding death benefits to Carole S. Trudeau, widow, and Donovan N. Trudeau, great-grandson (survivors), based upon the determination that Craig S. Trudeau (decedent) died as a proximate result of an occupational disease. We affirm.

At the time of his death, decedent was disabled from pulmonary fibrosis, a disease he contracted as a result of radiation exposure while working in uranium mines. He began receiving permanent total disability benefits from the SIF in May 1993.

In 2002, he became…