Workers often sustain an injury or contract a disease arising out of
their employment for which the employer and worker’s compensation
insurer deny worker’s compensation benefits, on the grounds that the
worker cannot identify a specific traumatic event that caused or
precipitated the injury or disease. Such a denial may be contrary
to fact and law. It is not always necessary for the worker to be
able to identify a specific event or date of injury, in order for
the claim to be compensable. The purpose of this essay is to
explain the concept of “occupational injury or disease,” for which
worker’s compensation benefits may indeed be awarded.
“It is often impossible to find the source from
which a germ causing disease has come. The germ leaves no trail that
can be followed. Proof often does not pass beyond the stage of
possibilities or probabilities, because no one can testify
positively to the source from which the germ came, as can be done in
the case of physical facts which may be observed in concerning which
witnesses can acquire positive knowledge. Under such circumstances
the commission or the court can base its findings upon a
preponderance of probabilities or of the inference that may be drawn
from established facts."
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