State Compensation Insurance Fund v. Industrial Accident Commission

California Supreme Court Oct 13, 1961 No. S. F. 20702Published

Before: White

AI Brief

AI-generated · verify before citing

Holding. The court held that the Industrial Accident Commission must apportion disability awards by deducting prior permanent disability percentages from current disability findings, as the 1959 amendment to Labor Code section 3212.5 pertains only to the cause of injury and not to the apportionment of permanent disability.

Issues

Whether the 1959 amendment to Labor Code section 3212.5 precludes the apportionment of permanent disability for deputy sheriffs with preexisting heart conditions.
Whether the Industrial Accident Commission erred by failing to deduct a prior 43% permanent disability from a 100% current disability award.

Disposition. annulled and remanded

Quotations verified verbatim against the opinion

“section 3212.5 of the Labor Code pertains not to apportionment, but to the cause of injury currently sustained.”

“The 1959 heart attack could not have caused 100 per cent disability since the heart was already 43% per cent disabled at the time of the 1959 attack. It was therefore erroneous for the commission to fail to deduct the earlier 43% per cent disability.”

WHITE, J.

The State Compensation Insurance Fund seeks a review of an Industrial Accident Commission award to Joseph Quick on the ground that because of a preexisting partial disability he was not entitled to full compensation awarded him for total disability.

In 1955, Mr. Joseph Quick, a deputy sheriff of Fresno County, became disabled by reason of progressive arteriosclerotic heart disease with heart insufficiency. Upon application for workmen’s compensation benefits, the Industrial Accident Commission found that the applicant was permanently, partially disabled to the extent of 43% per cent and that one-half thereof, or 21% per cent of the disability, was due to nonindustrial normal progress of the disease, the other one-half being attributed to industrial aggravation. At that time an award was made on this basis.

Mr. Quick continued to work as a deputy sheriff but took on lighter duties involving less physical strain. On November 24, 1959, he sustained an industrially connected heart attack. On November 11, 1960, the commission awarded him full benefits on a finding that he was 100 per cent disabled. It made no apportionment for the prior injuries but did

[684]

allow a “credit” of $2,610, which was the amount of the award for the percentage (21% per cent) of Mr. Quick’s prior permanent partial disability then attributed to industrial aggravation.

Petitioner contends that the Industrial Accident Commission is not authorized in computing the percentage of permanent disability caused by a current industrial accident, to include any disability attributable to a prior disease or injury, industrial or nonindustrial. It was error, therefore, petitioner maintains, for the commission to have failed to deduct the percentage of the prior partial disability (43% Per cent) from the 100 per cent current disability in determining and making the instant award.

The statutes governing apportionment generally are Labor Code sections 4663

and 4750

. Their purpose and limitations are cogently stated in

State Compensation Insurance Fund v. Industrial Accident Commission

AI Brief

WHITE, J.

More from California Supreme Court

Related research

AI Brief