DEPT. OF MOTOR VEH. v. Workmen's Comp. App. Bd.

A writ of review was granted in these proceedings to consider petitioner's contentions that the unscheduled rating of permanent disability upon which the award was predicated was not determined in a manner authorized by section 4660 of the Labor Code, and that the respondent Workmen's Compensation Appeals Board violated the provisions of section 5908.5 of the Labor Code because it failed to state the evidence upon which it relied in denying petitioner's petition for reconsideration. For reasons set forth below it is determined that the board complied with the provisions of section 5908.5 by referring to the referee's report on the petition for reconsideration in its decision. Nevertheless, the award must be annulled and the matter remanded because the record does not contain evidence to sustain the conclusion in the report, which was adopted and incorporated in the decision of the board, that the rating specialist was using his own judgment in determining the unscheduled percentage of disability upon which the referee and the board relied, and because the petitioner was denied the right to cross-examine the rating specialist whose judgment the witness apparently…