What the panel ordered
The WCAB granted the Petition for Reconsideration, amended the Findings of Fact, Order & Award to reflect a July 18, 2017 date of injury, and otherwise affirmed the decision.
Applicant filed a Petition for Reconsideration of the WCJ's Findings of Fact, Order & Award issued February 7, 2024, challenging the date of injury determination; the WCJ rescinded the original decision and held a further hearing, but reaffirmed the original date of injury; the WCAB granted reconsideration and issued a decision after reconsideration.
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 WCAB found that the July 18, 2017 QME report established disability and knowledge of industrial causation, satisfying section 5412 requirements, and that the WCJ erred in fixing the date of injury as February 18, 2020 based on section 5500.5 which governs liability, not date of injury.
From the decision · page 3Here, we agree with applicant that the WCJ erred in finding the date of injury to be February 18, 2020. Section 5412 requires proof of two elements: disability, and the injured worker's knowledge that the disability was related to the injury. The QME Report of July 18, 2017 finds that applicant sustained a "5% whole person impairment to the left wrist." (Ex. 1, at p. 22.) With regard to causation, the same report states: "Regarding his bilateral hands and wrists... it is my opinion, with reasonable medical probability, that the applicant's duties as a plumber were sufficient repetitive... to have caused an injury arising out of and in the course of his employment[.]" (Id., at p. 21.) In our view, these findings are sufficient to establish a July 18, 2017 date of injury pursuant to section 5412.