National Lead Co. v. Workmen's Compensation Appeals Board

[674]

DRAPER, P. J.

Injured in the course of his employment April 26, 1957, the employee first filed his application for compensation and medical expenses November 19, 1964. Respondent board made an award for permanent partial disability and future medical treatment. Petitioner, the permissibly self-insured employer, seeks annulment of the award.

Following his back injury, applicant was sent by his employer to an orthopedist chosen by it. Temporary disability payments were made to applicant through August 31, 1958. A laminectomy was performed in July 1957, but complications following surgery necessitated continuing treatment and a number of office visits. Applicant was seen by the doctor July 26, 1960. The doctor testified that his custom in such cases, which he thinks he followed here, was not to make a definite appointment for future consultation, but to say “If you have trouble I want to see you; . . . come back and see me when you think you need to.” Applicant testified that he was told: “if you hurt, come back.” The doctor wrote petitioner August 11, 1960: “I felt that he should soon be ready for a permanent disability rating, and will therefore re-examine him in a few months with that in mind. ’ ’ Applicant suffered no increased pain until sometime after July of 1963. In March 1964, he returned to the doctor, who telephoned the employer to ask about applicant’s current status. The officer to whom he spoke said he would inquire and advise the doctor. He did not do so. In September 1964, the company wrote the doctor that it would not pay his bill for the March visit, but did not inform applicant of this refusal. Meanwhile, applicant had gone to other doctors, who in December performed another laminectomy. There is evidence that this treatment was necessitated by the 1957 injury. Petitioner-employer paid all the bills for applicant’s treatment through July 26, 1960. For some unexplained reason, however, it dropped applicant’s name from its report of pending claims in January 1960, although it had been included through 1959, and restored it to the list only when this claim was filed.

An application for workmen's compensation benefits must be filed within one year from the date of the last furnishing of any benefits under the act (Lab. Code, § 5405, subd. (e)). More than four years elapsed from the medical treatment of July 26, 1960, paid for by the employer, to the filing of the application on November 19,1964.