Industrial Indemnity Co. v. Workers' Compensation Appeals Board

We have consolidated these petitions for writ of review because they involve the identical question. Each seeks reversal of a Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board (WCAB) determination that an amendment to Labor Code section 139.5 is applicable to require rehabilitation benefits to workers injured prior to the effective date of the amendment. We conclude that the WCAB has given an impermissibly retroactive application to the statute. Accordingly, we reverse the determinations of the board. Although section 139.5 was further amended in the 1976 legislative session to specify that the earlier amendment is not to be applied to workers injured prior to its effective date, we publish this opinion because we are informed that a significant number of cases involving the issue are pending.

As enacted in 1965, Labor Code section 139.5 created a system for initiation of rehabilitation plans by employers and insurance carriers, for state approval of plans so initiated, and for the payment of special benefits to injured workers who participate in a rehabilitation plan. The 1965 versión of section 139.5 provided that the initiation of a plan was voluntary and not compulsory on the part…