California: Subsequent Injuries Benefit Trust Fund’s Obligation Begins When Claimant Stops Receiving TD Payments

The appellate court held that pursuant to Lab. Code § 4751, Subsequent Injuries Benefits Trust Fund (SIBTF) benefits commence at the time the employer’s obligation to pay permanent disability benefits begins. Accordingly, the WCAB correctly determined that the start date for SIBTF benefits was the day after a claimant stopped receiving temporary disability payments and not, as the SIBTF had contended that its obligation began at a much later date—the date when the injured employee’s injuries were deemed permanent and stationary. The court disagreed, indicated that if the legislature intended for SIBTF benefits to be payable only upon a declaration of permanent and stationary status, rather than being paid in addition to permanent disability payments from the employer, it could have changed Labor Code § 4751 to so provide; it had not done so.

Thomas A. Robinson, J.D., the Feature National Columnist for the LexisNexis Workers’ Compensation eNewsletter, is the co-author of Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law (LexisNexis).

LexisNexis Online Subscribers: Citations below link to Lexis Advance.

See Baker v. Workers’ Comp. App. Bd. (Guerrero), 2017 Cal. App. LEXIS 662 (July 28, 2017)

See generally Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, § 91.04.

Source: Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, the nation’s leading authority on workers’ compensation law