Corrine A. Lang as of the Estate of Kevin Lang v. Municipal Employees' Retirement System of Rhode Island

Syllabus

The respondent, Municipal Employees' Retirement System of Rhode Island, sought review of a decision of the Appellate Division of the Workers' Compensation Court denying its appeal and affirming the trial judge's ruling that the Workers' Compensation Court had subject-matter jurisdiction to hear the petitioner's claim and that G.L. 1956 § 45-19.1-1 created a conclusive presumption that all cancer in firefighters arises out of and in the course of their employment as firefighters. The respondent claimed that the Workers' Compensation Court did not have jurisdiction over the petitioner's case, and that the court erred in finding that G.L. 1956 chapter 19.1 of title 45 contains a conclusive presumption that all cancers in firefighters are occupational cancers. The Supreme Court held that the Workers' Compensation Court did have jurisdiction to hear the petitioner's claim, pursuant to G.L. 1956 § 45-21.2-9(f), and that chapter 19.1 of title 45 did not contain a conclusive, or any, presumption that all cancers in firefighters are occupational cancers. Accordingly, the Supreme Court affirmed the decree on review in regard to the finding that the Workers' Compensation Court had jurisdiction to hear the petitioner's claim, but quashed the decree in regard to the finding that chapter 19.1 of title 45 contains a conclusive presumption that all cancers in firefighters are occupational cancers.