Augusta County Sheriff's Department v. Overbey

SENIOR JUSTICE WHITING

delivered the opinion of the Court.

In an employer’s appeal of a workers’ compensation claim, we consider a provision in Code § 65.2-402(B) which creates a presumption that a deputy sheriff’s heart disease was an occupational disease suffered in the line of duty “unless such presumption is overcome by a preponderance of competent evidence to the contrary.”

While on duty and talking to another deputy sheriff, Deputy Sheriff Patrick Lindy Overbey sustained sharp chest pains for a period of 9 or 10 minutes on the morning of January 31, 1995. Later that day, acting as a deputy…