What the panel ordered
Petition for reconsideration granted; January 17, 2024 Findings and Award rescinded; matter remanded to trial level for further proceedings and decision by the WCJ.
Applicant sought reconsideration of the January 17, 2024 Joint Findings and Award; the WCJ had found permanent partial disability but not permanent and total disability; the WCJ's Report recommended denial of reconsideration; the Board granted reconsideration and remanded for further development and decision by the WCJ.
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 Board found no substantial medical evidence supporting a synergistic effect of impairments to depart from the Permanent Disability Rating Schedule (PDRS). The vocational expert's report was not substantial evidence as it failed to account for valid medical apportionment per Nunes decisions. The Board granted reconsideration to allow supplemental medical and vocational reporting to address these issues.
From the decision · page 1Applicant seeks reconsideration of the January 17, 2024 Joint Findings and Award (F&A) wherein the workers' compensation administrative law judge (WCJ) found that applicant, while employed as a sales manager by Ralphs on November 14, 2014, sustained industrial injury to her left leg, psyche, back, bilateral feet and right wrist. The WCJ also found that applicant, while similarly employed from March 1, 1979, to July 1, 2015, sustained injury to her psyche, in the form of peripheral vascular disease to her lower extremities, bilateral knees, and neck. The WCJ found, in relevant part, that applicant had sustained permanent partial disability arising out of both injuries, but that the medical and vocational evidence did not support a finding that applicant's disability was permanent and total.