Summary of Presumptive Personal Injury Compensation Program

The legislation establishing the Tribunal, the Marshall Islands Nuclear Claims Tribunal Act 1987, sought to facilitate efficient and uniform payment of compensation for personal injury claims by providing for an administrative approach to resolution of such claims.  Specifically, the Tribunal was directed to issue regulations establishing a list of medical conditions which are irrebuttably presumed to be the result of the Nuclear Testing Program.  The regulations were also to include the amount of compensation due an individual upon proof of the existence of a listed condition and to provide the simplest and least expensive method of adequately proving the existence of such a condition.  

Pursuant to the legislation, the Tribunal adopted regulations in August 1991 establishing a list of 25 medical conditions for which a causal relationship to the Nuclear Testing Program was to be presumed.  Those regulations were amended by the Tribunal in January 1994 to add two additional conditions (numbers 26 and 27 below) to the presumed list. Effective October 1, 1996, the regulations were again amended by the Tribunal to include seven additional conditions (numbers 28-34 below). Bone cancer was added to the list in 1998 and autoimmune thyroiditis was added in 2003.

For eligible claimants, the administratively presumed medical conditions and the amounts of compensation for each that will be paid in pro rata annual payments are as follows:
 

1 Leukemia (other than chronic lymphocytic leukemia) $125,000 
2 Cancer of the thyroid  
  a. if recurrent or requires multiple surgical and/or ablation $75,000 
  b. if non-recurrent or does not require multiple treatment $50,000 
3 Cancer of the breast  
  a. if recurrent or requires mastectomy $100,000 
  b. if not recurrent or requires lumpectomy $75,000 
4 Cancer of the pharynx $100,000 
5 Cancer of the esophagus $125,000 
6 Cancer of the stomach $125,000 
7 Cancer of the small intestine $125,000 
8 Cancer of the pancreas $125,000 
9 Multiple myeloma $125,000 
10 Lymphomas (except Hodgkin's disease) $100,000 
11 Cancer of the bile ducts $125,000 
12 Cancer of the gall bladder $125,000 
13 Cancer of the liver (except if cirrhosis or hepatitis B is indicated) $125,000 
14 Cancer of the colon $75,000 
15 Cancer of the urinary bladder $75,000 
16 Tumors of the salivary gland  
  a. if malignant $50,000 
  b. if benign and requiring surgery $37,500 
  c. if benign and not requiring surgery $12,500 
17 Non-malignant thyroid nodular disease (unless limited to occult nodules)  
  a. if requiring total thyroidectomy $50,000 
  b. if requiring partial thyroidectomy $37,500 
  c. if not requiring thyroidectomy $12,500 
18 Cancer of the ovary $125,000 
19 Unexplained hypothyroidism (unless thyroiditis indicated) $37,500 
20 Severe growth retardation due to thyroid damage $100,000 
21 Unexplained bone marrow failure $125,000 
22 Meningioma $100,000 
23 Radiation sickness diagnosed between June 30, 1946 and August 18, 1958, inclusive $12,500 
24 Beta burns diagnosed between June 30, 1946 and August 18, 1958, inclusive $12,500 
25 Severe mental retardation (provided born between May and September 1954, inclusive, and mother was present on Rongelap or Utirik Atolls at any time in March 1954) $100,000 
26 Unexplained hyperparathyroidism $12,500 
27 Tumors of the parathyroid gland  
  a. if malignant $50,000 
  b. if benign and requiring surgery $37,500 
  c. if benign and not requiring surgery $12,500 
28 Bronchial cancer (including cancer of the lung and pulmonary system) $37,500 
29 Cancer of the brain $125,000 
30 Cancer of the central nervous system $125,000 
31 Cancer of the kidney $75,000 
32 Cancer of the rectum $75,000 
33 Cancer of the cecum $75,000 
34 Non-melanoma skin cancer in individuals who were diagnosed as having suffered beta burns under number 24 above $37,500 
35 Cancer of the bone $125,000
36 Autoimmune thyroiditis $12,500 
 
        To review or obtain copies of the regulations, contact Cathlina deBrum Wakefield, Clerk of the Tribunal, P.O. Box 702, Majuro, MH 96960; Telephone (692)625-3396; facsimile (692)625-3389; e-mail nctmaj@ntamar.net.      

 


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