JULIE GARCIA, Applicant,
v.
THE VONS COMPANY, INC., Permissibly Self-Insured, Defendant(s).
No. AHM 0057674
California Workers Compensation Decisions
Workers Compensation Appeals Board State of California
April 30, 2001
OPINION AND DECISION AFTER REMOVAL AND ORDER AWARDING
SANCTIONS (EN BANC)
MERLE
C. RABINE, CHAIRMAN
The
Board, on its own motion, previously removed this matter to
itself under Labor Code section 5310. Removal was ordered so
the Board could consider whether the filing of a seriously
untimely petition for reconsideration by Valley Subrogation
and Associates (Valley Subrogation) on behalf of lien
claimant, La Mirada Chiropractic Group (La Mirada), was
sanctionable conduct resulting from "bad-faith actions
or tactics that are frivolous or solely intended to cause
unnecessary delay," within the meaning of Labor Code
section 5813 and Board Rule 10561 (Cal. Code Regs., tit. 8,
§10561). Valley Subrogation's petition for
reconsideration had been filed on April 12, 2000, over six
months after the October 6, 1999 decision of the workers'
compensation administrative law judge (WCJ) disallowing La
Mirada's lien.
In our
March 14, 2001 opinion following removal, we held that the
petition for reconsideration filed by Valley Subrogation on
La Mirada's behalf was a "pleading, petition or
legal document" within the meaning of Board Rule 10561.
We also issued a notice of intention to award sanctions
against Valley Subrogation because, based upon our review of
the record, it appeared that Valley Subrogation had no
"reasonable justification" for filing the
significantly untimely petition for reconsideration and
because it appeared that its act of filing the untimely
petition for reconsideration without adequate explanation or
justification was "indisputably j without merit."
In
stating our belief that Valley Subrogation had no
"reasonable justification" for filing a petition
for reconsideration over six months after the WCJ's
October 6, 1999 decision and that its act of filing the very
untimely petition for reconsideration was "indisputably
without merit," our March 14, 2001 opinion observed in
substance: (1)...
