Knopfer v. Flournoy

Opinion

FRIEDMAN, J.

Appellants are members of the California Highway Patrol who are disabled by work-connected injuries. A provision of the workmen’s compensation law (Lab. Code, § 4800) declares that, in lieu of workmen’s compensation payments, disabled patrol members are entitled to leave of absence not exceeding one year without loss of salary.

1

Section 4803 states that section 4800 “refers to temporary disability only. . . .”

In this mandate action appellants complain that the State Controller is making unauthorized deductions from the payments directed by section 4800. They take the position that these payments are not salary; rather, that they constitute workmen’s compensation disability benefits which may not be assigned, which are exempt from attachment or execution and are subject only to liens for a limited variety of claims such as medical and

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legal expenses. (Lab. Code, § § 4900-4903.) Appellants seek a writ of mandate directing the Controller to draw warrants for their “full salary payments without deduction, except as provided in Sections 4900, et seq. of the Labor Code. ...”

The trial court denied relief and this appeal followed.

The record hints only elliptically at the allegedly illegal deductions. With the assistance of uncontradicted statements in the briefs, we gather that the following are examples of the deductions under attack: (a) medical insurance premiums, (b) retirement contributions, (c) salary garnishments by creditors.

2

Section 4800, which authorizes the payments in question, is part of the Workmen’s Compensation Law, codified as division 4 of the Labor Code. Division 4 commences with a series of definitions. Among the latter is Labor Code section 3207, which declares: “ ‘Compensation’ means compensation under Division 4 and includes every benefit or payment conferred by Division 4 upon an injured employee, including vocational rehabilitation, or in the event of his death, upon his dependents, without -regard to negligence.”