Report: Cancer-Stricken Ex-Firefighter Trying to Get Comp

Thursday, August 2, 2018 | 2

A retired firefighter in Northern California is fighting to receive workers’ compensation benefits for cancer he believes he contracted as a result of his job, according to a Fox affiliate in Sacramento.

The City of Sacramento has denied Don Ban’s workers’ compensation claim seeking benefits for cancer, according to Fox 40. Ban, 69, appears to be upset that the city is looking into the possibility that he contracted cancer outside of the job, and not as a result of spending 30 years working as a firefighter.

While California law presumes that cancer is a compensable condition for firefighters, the presumption applies only until 10 years after termination of service. Employers are also allowed the opportunity to attempt to rebut the presumption by showing that other factors, such as the use of tobacco, could have caused the disease.

Ban’s case is being litigated. He told the television station that an attorney during a deposition “started digging into stuff that you ... do every day of the week as causes.”

The television station reports that the city last year initially denied five of six cancer claims filed by firefighters. The city reversed its position on two of those cases.