Waitress tasked with proving a 'pre-existing, labor-disabling, permanent disability.'

A worker wanting to prove a pre-existing disability should provide evidence of an impairment – capable of being shown by medical evidence – before the subsequent injury, the panel of the Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board of California recently said.

In Cailliez vs. Subsequent Injuries Benefits Trust Fund, a woman filed an application claiming continuous trauma for industrial injuries while employed as a waitress. In May 2015, a compromise and release resolved the claim.

In September 2015, the applicant requested benefits from the Subsequent Injury Benefits Trust Fund (SIBTF). Numerous physicians evaluated her.

The workers’ compensation administrative law judge ordered development of the record. Specifically, the judge said that the internal medicine and psychological doctors should comment on whether the worker had a pre-existing, labor-disabling, permanent disability before the industrial injury.

Last May, the administrative law judge issued a decision finding that the applicant was not entitled to SIBTF benefits because she failed to present evidence proving a pre-existing, labor-disabling, permanent disability.

The worker filed a petition for reconsideration. She argued that the judge wrongly decided that evidence predating the subsequent injury – not subsequent medical reports – should establish the pre-existing disability.

The panel of the Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board of...

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