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McDonald v. Workers' Compensation Appeals Board6/30/2005
Petitioner Randolph McDonald claimed continuous trauma injury to his left knee and low back while employed as a courier for TLG Medical Products (TLG). TLG declined to provide workers' compensation benefits. McDonald's claims were tried and submitted to a workers' compensation administrative law judge (WCJ) who concluded McDonald failed to establish industrial injury by a preponderance of the evidence. McDonald petitioned respondent Workers' Compensation Appeals Board (Board) for relief. The Board affirmed the WCJ's ruling without comment.
In this petition for writ of review, McDonald contends the Board erred in denying his claim for benefits for injury to his low back, arguing he did sustain his burden of proving a work-related injury. He does not contest the Board's ruling regarding his left knee. The finding there was no industrial injury to McDonald's back is not supported by substantial evidence. Accordingly, the decision of the Board is annulled as to that portion of its ruling only, and the matter is remanded for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND
The Injuries and Hearings
McDonald made two separate claims of injury, one of which arose out of his employment with TLG. The injury at issue is a continuous trauma injury. McDonald claimed injury to his left knee and low back due to on-the-job lifting, pulling, bending, kneeling, and squatting while employed as a courier for TLG from March to December 1999. TLG declined to pay workers' compensation benefits on his claim because it believed the injury happened before his employment with TLG began, and because his claim was a post-termination claim barred by Labor Code section 3600. (All further statutory references are to the Labor Code.)
McDonald also sought workers' compensation benefits for a specific injury to his left knee on September 15, 1998 while employed by First Class Services, Inc. (specific injury claim). While that claim is not the subject of this petition, we discuss it here because of the intertwined medical records on both injuries and the Board's administrative handling of the two claims. Both the continuous trauma claim against TLG and the specific injury claim against First Class Services, Inc. proceeded to trial.
The WCJ issued an opinion and "Findings and Orders" holding McDonald did sustain an injury to his left knee arising out of the course of his employment with employer First Class Services, Inc. on September 15, 1998. He was making a delivery to an attorney's office in Newport Beach when he hit his ankle on a curb and sprained his left knee. McDonald reported the injury and kept working. The WCJ ruled recovery for that injury was precluded by the statute of limitations.
Regarding the continuous injury claim, the WCJ ruled McDonald did not sustain injury to his left knee or low back arising out of or in the course of his employment as a driver for TLG from March to December 1999; thus he failed to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that he sustained work related injury while employed by TLG. In reaching this conclusion, the WCJ found Dr. Mark Brown, McDonald's treating physician, never stated how McDonald had injured his lumbar spine, stating, "There needs to be a description sufficient for the Court to make a finding of industrial injury." The WCJ ordered that McDonald take nothing on both claims for benefits.
McDonald petitioned for reconsideration of the WCJ's findings and asked the Board to find first, that his September 15, 1998 injury was not precluded by the statute of limitations, and second, that he did injure his left knee and low back while employed by TLG. Th
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