MAXINE HAMILTON, Applicant,
v.
LOCKHEED CORPORATION; WAUSAU INSURANCE COMPANY, Defendant(s).
No. MON 0223961
California Workers Compensation Decisions
Workers Compensation Appeals Board State of California
April 30, 2001
OPINION AND DECISION AFTER RECONSIDERATION (EN
BANC)
MERLE
C. RABINE, Chairman
On
December 27, 2000, the Workers' Compensation Appeals
Board (Board) granted J reconsideration of the Findings and
Award of October 4, 2000, in which the workers'
compensation administrative law judge (WCJ) found that
applicant was totally permanently disabled and in need of
further medical treatment as the result of the cumulative
industrial injury : to the psyche sustained from December
1990 to September 30, 1992. The WCJ further found that
apportionment of permanent disability was not appropriate.
Defendant
carrier contended (1) that the WCJ's findings of fact
were not based on consideration of the entire record; (2)
that apportionment of permanent disability was supported by
the opinion of the agreed medical evaluator (AME); and (3)
that defendant had been deprived of due process of law in the
proceedings. Applicant filed an answer to the petition for
reconsideration.
This
case presents an important issue that frequently arises in
Board proceedings, i.e., what must be included in the
Board's record when a case is submitted to the WCJ for
decision on the record. To secure uniformity in proceedings
and decisions in the future, the Chairman of the Board, on a
majority vote of the members, has reassigned this case to the
Board as a whole for an en banc decision. (Lab. Code
§115.)
We hold
that the record of proceedings in a case submitted for
decision on the record must be properly organized and must
contain at the minimum: a list of the issues submitted to the
WCJ for decision; the stipulations of the parties, if any;
and the admitted evidence.
I.
BACKGROUND
The
relevant facts of this case are as follows. Applicant
sustained admitted cumulative industrial injury to the psyche
from December 1990 through September 30, 1992. After
applicant's evaluation by an AME, the matter was
submitted for decision "on the record" at the
hearing of July 25, 2000. The Minutes of Hearing contain
neither the issues submitted for decision, nor the
stipulations of the parties, if any, nor a list of the
evidence submitted by the parties and admitted into evidence
by the WCJ. Filed behind the minutes is a large collection of
documents with numbered tabs, which include medical reports
and deposition transcripts. These documents are not listed,
identified, or described anywhere in the record...
