This unpublished case from the Fifth District Court of Appeal involved an employer's denial of medical treatment because the original Stipulations and Award did not specify the particular body part for which treatment was being requested.
The employee had worked for Target and entered into stipulations which were approved by Award in 1994. The stips included language that continued medical treatment is needed and the body parts named were the "right elbow and arm."
Over the next 11 years the defendant paid the applicant's medical bills for treatment that included the neck.
Then the employer changed third party administrators and the new one denied further neck treatment because it wasn't listed in the original stips and award.
At this point the applicant's attorney filed a petition to reopen based on "clerical error" so that the body parts listed could be corrected to include the neck (since the rating incorporated elsewhere in the stipulations had included the "18.1" neck/spine classification).
At trial the judge agreed that the award could be corrected in light of the "18.1" body part designation and the WCAB agreed. The employer appealed, arguing that the time to petition to reopen had long since passed and that it was error to consider past treatment payments it had made if these payments shouldn't have been legally paid in the first place.
The appellate court affirmed the decision in favor of the applicant, noting that this action really wasn't a Petition to Reopen (which would have been too late after 5 years) but was rather just within the WCAB inherent powers to "enforce" its awards (which have no time limits). And that there was in fact substantial evidence supporting the judge's decision.
In other words, this was just another example of "substance" over "procedure" to get it right.
"The WCAB maintains the 'inherent power to control its practice and procedure to
prevent frustration, abuse, or disregard of its processes.' (citation) Moreover, the WCAB is vested with
'continuing jurisdictional over all of its orders, decisions and awards.' (L.C. § 5803)"
"While
the WCAB's power to alter prior decisions is limited to five years from the date of injury
under sections 5410 and 5804, its authority to enforce its awards and to conduct related
ancillary proceedings is not time-barred."
The case is Target Stores v. WCAB (Sollars).
To read the full, unpublished opinion,
PLEASE CLICK HERE.
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