The Washington Supreme Court moved this week in favor of two Bellevue firefighters battling melanoma whose insurance benefits were rescinded by the city and state Department of Labor.
“I thought [the verdict] was great. The fact that skin cancer is a presumptive disease for firefighters, there’s kind of this promise made to us… When it was denied, it was a hard deal. Cancer’s a scary thing. Bill and I are fortunate that we were able to get through this,” one of the plaintiffs, Delmis Spivey, told the Reporter.
The case tackled a 2002 amendment to state law that makes melanoma an occupational disease for firefighters. The city and department of labor contested the allocation of industrial insurance benefits to firefighters Spivey and Wilfred A. Larson because they could not definitely prove that their cancer was caused by their work for the Bellevue Fire Department.