Fremont Indemnity Co. v. Workers' Compensation Appeals Board

Petitioner Fremont Indemnity Company petitions for review and annulment of an order of the Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board (Board) finding that the applicant sustained an injury to the right hip. We annul the order and remand the cause for further proceedings.

Facts

Applicant and respondent Henry H. Zepeda (applicant) filed a claim for workers’ compensation benefits alleging industrial injury to his back and right leg on March 18, 1976, against Service Greeting Card Company and its insurer Fremont Indemnity. In early 1978, the applicant had surgery to his hip, including a total hip replacement. At the trial on January 8, 1979, the applicant added the allegation of a right hip injury. Petitioner, insurance carrier Fremont Indemnity, contested injury to the right hip. Dr. Charles Bechtol, a specialist in implant surgery, was appointed as an independent medical examiner. In a report to the Board dated August 31, 1981, Dr. Bechtol stated, “For the hip, this injury is not industrially caused. . . . The total hip however, pre-existed the injury and is not aggrevated [sic] by it.”

Dr. Bechtol was deposed on February 8, 1982. At that time he testified that “I think that…