Healy v. Industrial Accident Commission

GIBSON, C. J.

Petitioner, Edward Healy, seeks review of an order of the Industrial Accident Commission awarding him workmen’s compensation benefits for injuries sustained in the course of his employment as a police officer of the city of Los Angeles. He complains that credits were improperly allowed the city and that he should have been reimbursed for self-obtained medical care.

Healy was seriously injured when the automobile which he was operating collided with a car driven by Albert Becker. The city, which is permissibly uninsured (Lab. Code, § 3700), furnished Healy with hospitalization and medical treatment, and he obtained other medical care on his own initiative. He was paid full salary for two years after the accident. He was then retired for disability, and the city commenced to pay him a pension of $283.50 a month. Healy recovered a judgment against Becker under which he received $2,750,

[120]

and out of this amount be paid $750 to his attorney. On application to the Industrial Accident Commission he was awarded, insofar as relevant here, $7,200 for permanent disability and $18.46 a week for life. The city was allowed credit against this award for the monthly pension payments of $283.50 and for the sum of $2,750 which Healy received under the Becker judgment.

Healy filed a petition for review in the District Court of Appeal which alleged that the award was erroneous and requested leave to file an amendment setting forth the grounds relied upon for review. Leave was granted, and the amendment was filed more than 30 days after the award was made. Thereafter the District Court of Appeal denied the petition, and a hearing was granted by this court. The petition, which was filed within 30 days as required by section 5950 of the Labor Code, was sufficient to confer jurisdiction, and the court had power to permit amendment.

(Cf. Wennerholm

v.

Stanford Univ. Sch. of Med.,

20 Cal.2d 713, 718 [128 P.2d 522, 141 A.L.R. 1358].)

The commission properly determined that the employer was entitled to credit for the full amount which Healy received under the Becker judgment, without deduction for the fee which Healy paid his attorney in that suit. (See Lab. Code, §§ 3856, 3858, 3861;