What the panel ordered
Petitions for reconsideration granted; WCJ's decision of August 6, 2024 rescinded; case returned to trial level for further development and decision consistent with en banc decision in Vigil v. County of Kern (2024).
Petitions for reconsideration filed by applicant and defendant regarding WCJ's Findings and Award and Order of August 6, 2024; WCJ's decision rescinded and matter returned to trial level for further proceedings and decision.
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 WCJ included psychiatric permanent disability in the overall permanent disability calculation under the violent act exception, but the Appeals Board found the record needed further development and reanalysis in light of the en banc decision in Vigil v. County of Kern (2024).
From the decision · page 1Applicant and defendant have filed separate petitions for reconsideration with regard to a workers' compensation administrative law judge's (WCJ) Findings and Award and Order of August 6, 2024, wherein it was found that while employed on May 13, 2015 as a foreman, applicant sustained industrial injury to the head, eyes, vision, face, jaw, chin and mouth causing permanent disability of 70%. It was also found that "the violent act exception [to not including psychiatric permanent disability as a compensable consequence to a physical injury] applies pursuant to Labor Code section 4660.1(c)(2)(A)." Although there was no finding of psychiatric injury, psychiatric permanent disability was included in the calculation of overall permanent disability.