Toccalino v. Workers' Compensation Appeals Board

128 Cal. App. 3d 543, 180 Cal. Rptr. 427, 47 Cal. Comp. Cases 145, 1982 Cal. App. LEXIS 1249
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedFebruary 8, 1982
DocketCiv. 6507
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 128 Cal. App. 3d 543 (Toccalino v. Workers' Compensation Appeals Board) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Toccalino v. Workers' Compensation Appeals Board, 128 Cal. App. 3d 543, 180 Cal. Rptr. 427, 47 Cal. Comp. Cases 145, 1982 Cal. App. LEXIS 1249 (Cal. Ct. App. 1982).

Opinions

Opinion

HANSON (P. D.), J.

Petitioner by writ of review seeks to annul a decision after reconsideration of the Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board rescinding a 10 percent penalty imposed by the workers’ compensation judge on all temporary disability, and assessing the penalty only on the amount actually delayed; sustaining the judge’s findings of temporary disability at the rate of only $116.50 per week; sustaining the judge’s decision to treat petitioner’s psychiatric disability as included within the rating for her back disability; and reducing the amount of attorney’s fees awarded.

Petitioner Anita Toccalino suffered a back injury in November 1977 while lifting a patient at Sierra Vista Hospital where she was employed as a licensed vocational nurse. Petitioner left work on or about March [549]*54918, 1978, and did not return during the workers’ compensation proceedings.

On March 14, 1979, petitioner filed two applications for adjudication of workers’ compensation benefits. Case No. 79 SBA 25605, which was ordered dismissed at the hearing, alleged cumulative back trauma over the period of employment at Sierra Vista Hospital; case No. 79 SBA 25606, subject of this proceeding, alleged the specific injury which occurred in November 1977.

Respondent Sierra Vista Hospital, permissibly self-insured, denied liability for self-procured treatment, future medical treatment, medical legal costs and permanent disability, and disputed the periods of disability; respondent also claimed apportionment. The answer further alleged payment of temporary disability at the rate of $116.78 per week from March 26, 1978, to May 18, 1979.

The matter was heard before a workers’ compensation judge on December 3, 1980. Evidence presented included the hospital’s payroll statement and various medical reports which show that petitioner received treatment, including surgery on November 14, 1979. It was stipulated that petitioner was receiving psychiatric treatment and that the issue of psychiatric disability could be tried at that time.

The minutes of the hearing contain the following statement of the facts and issues:

“Facts: It Is Admitted that Anita Toccalino, born January 18, 1950, while employed in November 1977 at San Luis Obispo, California by Sierra Vista Hospital, permissibly self-insured, sustained an injury arising out of and occurring in the course of her employment to her back. Earnings were sufficient to produce a compensation rate of $116.50 per week. Temporary disability was paid through July 15, 1980. Applicant is claiming continuing temporary disability; defendant is claiming applicant is permanent and stationary.
“Issues: 1. Need for medical treatment: 2. Liability for self-procured medical treatment: 3. $960 cost bill: 4. Nature & extent of disability: 5. Penalty: There was a 30-day period from May 1st to May 31st, 1979 where no payments of any type were received by applicant. After that date, payments were reinstituted.
[550]*550“Applicant’s earnings at the time of injury were $116.50 per week, and at the time she last worked they were $188.13 per week, although applicant lost some time from work due to sickness and so forth.”

On January 8, 1981, the judge issued instructions requesting that petitioner’s disability from the back injury be rated with a limitation to sedentary work. Thereafter, a formal rating issued showing that petitioner’s permanent disability was 66 percent and recommending that she receive permanent disability indemnity at $70 per week for 353 weeks, for a total award of $24,710. Petitioner’s counsel inquired by letter regarding the absence of any instruction to the rater on the psychological injury.

The workers’ compensation judge awarded temporary disability from November 1977 through July 15, 1980, at the rate of $116.50 per week; a 10 percent penalty on all temporary disability because of the arbitrary cutoff of payments in May 1979; further medical care, including psychiatric treatment; permanent disability of $24,710, based on the 66 percent rating, less $4,000 attorney’s fees “to be commuted from the far end of the award .... ”

The opinion on the findings and award states in part: “Costs of $960.00 to Dr. Tenenbaum [the treating psychiatrist] are allowed.

“Said injury caused temporary disability from 11/77 to 7/15/80, and permanent disability of 66%. (Defendant was not prepared at the hearing and could not advise the Judge the amount of temporary disability paid.) The rating is based upon Dr. Williams’ [the neurosurgeon who treated petitioner’s back injury] report and he apparently considered the applicant’s total condition.”

Both parties petitioned for reconsideration of the findings, and award of the workers’ compensation judge. Respondent’s petition presented four claims of error:

(1) Temporary disability should not have been awarded beginning in November 1977 because petitioner worked until March 1978.
(2) It was error to impose a penalty because the 30-day delay in payment was caused by petitioner’s failure to see her treating physician, and therefore the delay was not unreasonable.
[551]*551(3) If the penalty were allowable, it should have been limited to the amount actually delayed because temporary disability was voluntarily paid until July 15, 1980.
(4) Permanent disability was improperly awarded without provision for suspension during any periods of participation by petitioner in a .rehabilitation program.

The judge indicated in his report on respondent hospital’s petition for reconsideration that the provision for temporary disability starting from November 1977, and the reference to finding No. 4 in awarding temporary disability, were clerical errors and the temporary disability award should be corrected to begin temporary disability on March 19, 1978 (finding No. 5). The judge recommended that the petition for reconsideration be denied in all other respects.

After the filing of the judge’s report, petitioner filed a petition for reconsideration with the board claiming that the findings and award were in error because: (1) Petitioner’s temporary disability rate should have been found to be $125.42 per week. (2) Petitioner’s psychiatric injury should have been rated in addition to her back injury.

Because the trial judge’s report was responsive only to respondent’s petition, the board granted reconsideration to obtain a supplemental report. Addressing petitioner’s claim that the parties stipulated to a temporary disability compensation rate of $125.42 per week, the judge wrote: “... the minutes do not reflect the stipulation, nor do my notes, although my notes do indicate some information that tends to support applicant’s contention.” Accordingly, the judge recommended that the issue of the temporary disability rate be remanded for further proceedings unless the parties were able to resolve the matter by stipulation.

With regard to petitioner’s claim that a psychiatric disability should have been rated separately, the judge said: “The permanent disability evaluation made by Dr. Williams was the basis for the permanent disability rating which was a plateau rating limiting applicant to semi-sedentary work.

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Toccalino v. Workers' Compensation Appeals Board
128 Cal. App. 3d 543 (California Court of Appeal, 1982)

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Bluebook (online)
128 Cal. App. 3d 543, 180 Cal. Rptr. 427, 47 Cal. Comp. Cases 145, 1982 Cal. App. LEXIS 1249, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/toccalino-v-workers-compensation-appeals-board-calctapp-1982.