August 2015 Case Law Update

Thursday, August 6, 2015 | 0

EMPLOYMENT

In Noe v. Superior Court of Los Angeles County (2015) 80 CCC 534, the 2nd District Court of Appeal held that LC 226.8, which prohibits the willful misclassification of individuals as independent contractors, is not limited to employers who make the misclassification decision, but extends to any employer that is aware that a co-employer willfully misclassified their joint employees and fails to remedy the misclassification.

MEDICAL TREATMENT

In Apparicio v. State Farm Mutual Auto Insurance Co., 2015 Cal. Wrk. Comp. P.D. LEXIS 314, the WCAB held that it had no jurisdiction to decide an applicant's entitlement for ongoing prescription medications pursuant to a request for authorization Sept. 30, 2014, even though the defendant did not submit the request to UR.

In Southard v. Hallmark Cards (2015) ADJ218782 (panel decision), the panel majority held that if an IMR determination does not issue within the time periods mandated by LC 4610.6(d), the medical treatment dispute is no longer covered by the LC 4610.5 IMR process, and it may be heard and decided by a WCJ at an expedited hearing, per the WCAB's authority under LC 4604.

RETURN TO WORK

In Silva v. LSG Sky Chefs (2015) ADJ7812017; ADJ7813152 (panel decision),  the WCAB held that an applicant who received two permanent disability awards for two different injuries was entitled, under LC 4658.5, to supplemental job displacement benefit vouchers for each injury.

DEATH BENEFITS

In Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation v. WCAB (Thompson) (2015) C078345, the 3rd District Court of Appeal rescinded an award of workers' compensation death benefits when the WCAB failed to adjudicate a widow's petition to determine her entitlement to special death benefits under PERS, per GC 21530 et seq.

DISCOVERY AND SETTLEMENT

In Aguilar v. Harris Ranch Beef Co., 2015 Cal. Wrk. Comp. P.D. LEXIS 313, the WCAB rescinded an order allowing a defendant to depose an applicant on any history of sexual harassment, sexual assault or molestation, because the defendant had not shown good cause for such discovery under LC 3208.4.

LITIGATION

In McKenna v. City of Sacramento, 2015 Cal. Wrk. Comp. P.D. LEXIS 327,  the WCAB rescinded a WCJ's order disqualifying an entire defense firm just because an attorney from the firm representing the applicant went to work for the defense firm.

In Lopez v. Sheraton Park Hotel, 2015 Cal. Wrk. Comp. P.D. LEXIS 326, the WCAB rescinded a WCJ's order disallowing the liens of claimants for failure to appear based on CCR 10774.5(e)(4).

Complete discussion of these topics can be found in Sullivan On Comp available to subscribers at http://www.workcompcentral.com/soc.

Michael Sullivan is the founder of Michael Sullivan & Associates LLP, a workers' compensation defense firm with seven offices in California, and author of "Sullivan on Comp," a treatise on California workers' compensation law.