Court of Appeal overturns WCAB decision on apportionment in published case

• Posted By: Harvey Brown
• January 1, 2019

This is a court of appeal case

This is a very significant case for workers’ compensation principles.

The applicant had a work related injury. The applicant saw private physicians that did not believe the applicants vision loss was work related. The Qualified Medical Examiner (QME) believed it was work related. However, he apportioned disability to a pre-existing condition.

After the doctor’s deposition he apportioned 15% to industrial and 85% to non industrial.

At trial the Workers’ Compensation Judge (WCJ) found the apportionment was not supported by substantial evidence and did not allow any apportionment. The defendant filed a petition for reconsideration. The Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board (WCAB) agreed with the WCJ and indicated that the QME confused causation of injury with causation of disability. Therefore, no apportionment.

The appellate court reviewed Brodie, Zemke, Escobedo, etc. They also reviewed Labor Code section 4663 and 4664. The appellate court indicated the QME understood the distinction between cause of injury and cause of disability. It is not required that an asymptomatic condition become symptomatic to receive apportionment. It is only required that substantial medical evidence state that an asymptomatic condition was a contributing factor of disability. Here there was substantial medical evidence to allow apportionment.

Case: City of Petaluma v. WCAB (Lindh)

• Posted In: Apportionment