Industrial Claim Appeals Office v. Town of Castle Rock

Summary

The court held that an employer may rebut the statutory presumption that a qualifying firefighter’s cancer is work-related by presenting particularized medical risk-factor evidence showing that it is more probable than not that the cancer arose outside the workplace. The employer need not prove a specific alternative cause; it must show by a preponderance of the medical evidence that the firefighter’s employment did not cause the particular cancer. The court affirmed the court of appeals and remanded for reconsideration by the administrative law judge.