What the panel ordered
Petition for reconsideration granted; WCJ decision of February 7, 2023 rescinded; case returned to trial level for further proceedings and decision by WCJ.
Petition for reconsideration filed February 23, 2023, after WCJ decision of February 7, 2023; Appeals Board failed to act within 60 days due to procedural irregularities; petition granted and case remanded to WCJ for further proceedings on proposed settlement.
What was disputed, and how it came out
Each issue the panel decided, with the reasoning it gave. An outcome is what this panel did on this record — not a rule, and not a prediction.
The Appeals Board failed to act on the petition within 60 days due to procedural irregularities, and the time to act was tolled, so the petition was granted and the case remanded for further proceedings.
From the decision · page 1Labor Code section 5909 provides that a petition is denied by operation of law if the Appeals Board does not grant the petition within 60 days after it is filed. (Lab. Code, § 5909.) However, we believe that "it is a fundamental principle of due process that a party may not be deprived of a substantial right without notice...." (Shipley v. Workers' Comp. Appeals Bd. (1992) 7 Cal.App.4th 1104, 1108 [57 Cal.Comp.Cases 493].) In Shipley, the Appeals Board denied the applicant's petition for reconsideration because it had not acted on the petition within the statutory time limits of Labor Code section 5909. This occurred because the Appeals Board had misplaced the file, through no fault of the parties. The Court of Appeal reversed the Appeals Board's decision holding that the time to act on applicant's petition was tolled during the period that the file was misplaced. (Shipley, supra, 7 Cal.App.4th at p. 1108.) Like the Court in Shipley, "we are not convinced that the burden of the system's inadequacies should fall on [a party]." (Shipley, supra, 7 Cal.App.4th at p. 1108.)