What the panel ordered
Findings and Orders dated February 10, 2020, rescinded; new findings deferring date of injury and injury arising out of employment; compensation not barred by statute of limitations; no specific injury sustained on January 30 or February 1, 2016.
Petition for Reconsideration granted; original Findings and Orders rescinded and substituted with new findings and orders.
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.
Statute of limitationsDeferredlow back
The issue of the date of injury is deferred because applicant did not have knowledge of industrial causation prior to July 28, 2017, due to conflicting medical advice and lack of special training to recognize cumulative injury.
From the decision · page 10Accordingly, defendant has not met its burden of proving that the employee knew or should have known his disability was caused by his employment. (Johnson, supra, 163 Cal.App.3d at p. 471.) We will therefore rescind the F&O and substitute new findings deferring the issue of the date of injury per section 5412. Moreover, given our conclusion that applicant did not possess the knowledge required under section 5412 prior to July 28, 2017, and because applicant commenced proceedings for the collection of benefits less than one year later on November 3, 2017, we will find that compensation is not barred by section 5405. Because the underlying decision did not reach the issue of injury arising out of and in the course of employment, we will defer the issue. Finally, given that no party has challenged the WCJ's determinations regarding the claimed specific dates of injury, we will find that applicant did not sustain a specific injury to his low back on January 30, 2016 or on February 1, 2016.