What the panel ordered
Findings and Award of January 27, 2021 affirmed by the WCAB after reconsideration.
Petition for reconsideration filed by applicant challenging the WCJ's finding of 89% permanent disability and apportionment; WCAB granted reconsideration and issued decision after reconsideration affirming the WCJ's Findings and Award.
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.
Permanent disability ratingDefendant prevailedcervical spine · lumbar spine · bilateral hips · bilateral hands · bilateral wrists · hypertension · upper gastrointestinal system · psyche · headaches · hearing loss
The WCAB found that the vocational expert's opinion was not substantial evidence to rebut the medical apportionment, which was stipulated by the parties as legal and valid. The WCJ's finding of 89% permanent disability after apportionment was affirmed.
From the decision · page 1In the Findings and Award of January 27, 2021, the workers' compensation administrative law judge ("WCJ") found that applicant, while employed as an auto mechanic during the period January 28, 1987 through April 26, 2017, sustained injury arising out of and in the course of employment to his cervical spine, lumbar spine, bilateral hips, bilateral hands, bilateral wrists, hypertension, upper gastrointestinal system, psyche, headaches, and hearing loss, causing permanent disability of 89%. The WCJ issued this finding of 89% permanent disability after accounting for apportionment to non-industrial factors, based on the WCJ's accompanying finding that there is "legal and valid apportionment of the impairments to applicant's lumbar spine, cervical spine, hypertension, upper gastrointestinal system, and headaches."