WCDefenseCA

The Court of Appeal recently denied an applicant’s petition for a writ of review in a case primarily dealing with the Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board’s 5-year jurisdictional limit.

Essentially, applicant filed a petition to reopen for new and further disability a few months shy (54 days) of five years past his date of injury.  The Agreed Medical Evaluator found that applicant had remained permanent and stationary.

Applicant then underwent (industrial) back surgery in November of 2009, and defendant provided temporary disability benefits for roughly four months, before stopping on the grounds that applicant was not temporarily disabled at the time the petition was filed.

The issue proceeded to trial and the Workers’ Compensation Judge found that applicant was entitled to temporary disability benefits from the date of his surgery through the date of the trial (and ongoing).

Following defendant’s petition for reconsideration, the Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board found that there is no authority to award temporary disability for a period beginning after the five-year period has expired, even if a petition to reopen was timely filed.

In other words, if applicant does not begin a period of temporary disability within five years of his or her injury, no more TD will ever be award.  Not a groundbreaking finding, of course, but a useful tidbit of knowledge to keep in mind when facing those pesky petitions to reopen.

The writ denied case?  Gregory McBee v. Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board.