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Case Summaries

Workers' Comp

[04/26] CA Dept. of Corrections and Rehabilitation v. State Personnel Board (Moya)
The Public Safety Officers Procedural Bill of Rights Act excepts internal workers' compensation fraud investigations from the one-year limitations period established in Government Code section 3304(d)(1).

[04/22] County of Sacramento v. WCAB
An award by the Workers' Compensation Appeals Board (Board) is annulled and remanded, where the factual basis of the evaluator's opinion, as revealed in her reports and deposition, do not constitute substantial evidence supporting her conclusion that the worker's psychiatric injury was not substantially caused by personnel actions.

[04/09] Kealhoa v. Office of Workers Compensation Programs
Evidence that a claimant planned his suicide does not necessarily preclude compensation under the Longshore and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act because the proper inquiry is whether the claimant's work-related injury caused him to attempt suicide, so claimant's petition for review of the Benefits Review Board's decision is granted, and the matter is remanded for the Board or the Administrative Law Judge to apply the proper chain of causation test, and not the irresistible impulse test.

[03/22] In the Matter of Howard
In an action to determine whether claimant's Alford plea should be given preclusive effect in a subsequent workers' compensation proceeding, the decision of the Workers' Compensation Board appealed from and the order of the Appellate Division brought up for review are affirmed, because it cannot be said that the guilty plea necessarily resolved the issue raised in the workers' compensation proceeding.

[03/12] Minish v. Hanuman Fellowship
Summary judgment to defendants' on their workers' compensation affirmative defense to plaintiff personal injury claim is reversed, where the undisputed facts do not establish either that: 1) judicial estoppel was applicable; or 2) plaintiff admitted that she was covered by workers' compensation.

[02/14] Auqui v. Seven Thirty One Limited Partnership
Order granting defendants' motion to preclude plaintiffs from litigating, in his personal injury action, the issue of plaintiff Verdugo's accident-related disability beyond January 24, 2006 is affirmed, where: 1) the determination of the Workers' Compensation Board that plaintiff Verdugo no longer suffered any disability as of that date should be given preclusive effect; and 2) plaintiffs had a full and fair opportunity to litigate the issue of ongoing disability in the WC proceedings.

[01/30] Co. of Alameda v. Workers' Comp. Appeals Bd.
Salary continuation benefits paid to an injured public safety officer pursuant to Labor Code section 4850 count toward the 104-week limit on aggregate disability payments for an injury causing temporary disability under Labor Code Section 4656.

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