Bonner

In this case involving the issue of the degree of the employer’s negligence for purposes of determining a credit against an injured employee’s recovery by settlement against a third party, we hold that the employer’s statutory duty to maintain a safe workplace cannot be delegated to a third party so as to effectively insulate the employer from liability. Where the employer has knowledge of a dangerous condition in the workplace caused by the negligence of a third party, or reasonably should have discovered it, and fails to take reasonable steps either to alleviate the danger or to give an adequate warning in order to prevent injury to employees, the employer, for purposes of the credit determination, must, as a matter of law, be found concurrently negligent to a degree greater than a de minimis amount. We also hold that with regard to designation of the amount of likely tort damages which the employee would have reasonably recovered, where there is a failure to comply with the mandate of Labor Code section 5908.5 that the determination of a petition for reconsideration state the evidence relied upon and specify the reasons for the decision, the determination must be…