WCDefenseCA

Your humble blogger once offered his condolences to his beloved readers representing and adjusting claims made against cities and counties and even the State by peace officers entitled to wage continuation.  As you may recall, in the matter of City of San Rafael v. Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board (Monte Payne), the Court of Appeal denied the City’s petition for a writ of review, allowing the workers’ compensation Judge’s and the WCAB’s findings that wage continuation under Labor Code section 4850 did not start the clock on 104 weeks of temporary disability payments (see LC section 4656.)

So… about that.

On Wednesday, the Court of Appeal issued an opinion in the case of County of Alameda v. Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board (Bryan Knittel), holding that the 104 week limitation on temporary disability payments found in section 4656 includes wage continuation paid to a Sheriff’s deputy.

Deputy Knittel sustained an industrial injury to the knee and went to temporary disability, receiving his full wages for one year after the injury.  After the wage continuation payments expired, the County started paying temporary disability, but only for one year.  At that point the well ran dry and Deputy Knittel called the cops his attorneys.

Under Payne, a police officer would be entitled to three years of payments – one at full pay, and two more at the regular temporary total disability rate.  But, the Court in Knittel held that the term “aggregate disability payments” as used in section 4656 includes wage continuation benefits as well as temporary total disability payments.

Score another victory for the defense!

In the meantime, your humble blogger will try to avoid getting pulled over by some unhappy peace officers…