Rodriguez v. Workers' Comp. Appeals Bd.

Petitioner Josafat Rodriguez, Jr. is a veteran of the Gulf War, and served as a police officer for the City of Santa Cruz (“City”) from 1995 until 2007.  He applied for industrial disability retirement in 2011 with the California Public Employee’s Retirement System (“PERS” or “CalPERS”) based on his diagnosis of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (“PTSD”) that was caused in part by his work for the City.

The City disputed whether Rodriguez was entitled to disability retirement through six- and one-half years of litigation resulting in two opinions from this Court that ultimately confirmed Rodriguez’s right to the retirement allowance.  (Rodriguez v. City of Santa Cruz (2014) 227 Cal.App.4th 1443 (Rodriguez I); Rodriguez v. City of Santa Cruz (Sept. 22, 2016, H042280) [nonpub. opn.] (Rodriguez II).)

Following this Court’s decision in Rodriguez II, the City granted Rodriguez disability retirement, but denied his claim of industrial causation, and he began to receive benefits on December 1, 2016.  Rodriguez then requested a finding that his disability was industrial from the Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board (“WCAB” or “Board”) on April 25, 2017.  The Board concluded that Rodriguez’s disability was industrial, but that he was barred from receiving industrial disability retirement benefits because his claim for a finding of industrial causation was untimely under the five-year time limitation set forth in Government Code section 21171.

We find that Rodriguez’s claim for industrial causation was timely.  We therefore annul the Board’s decision. 

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