Hartsuiker

Introduction

Petitioner, Russell Hartsuiker, seeks review of an opinion and order of respondent Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board (WCAB or Board) denying reconsideration of a decision of the workers’ compensation judge (WCJ) declining to reserve jurisdiction to award further temporary total disability indemnity in the event of hospitalization or surgery occurring more than five years after the date of petitioner’s occupational injury.

In Nickelsberg v. Workers’ Comp. Appeals Bd. (1991) 54 Cal.3d 288 [ 285 Cal.Rptr. 86 [ 814 P.2d 1328 ] (Nickelsberg), the Supreme Court held that in the absence of a reservation of jurisdiction the WCAB has no authority to award temporary total disability indemnity more than five years after the date of injury. The Nickelsberg court expressly noted that it had “no occasion ... to determine whether the WCAB does have authority to reserve jurisdiction to award temporary total disability indemnity more than five years after the date of the original injury.” ( Nickelsberg, supra, 54 Cal.3d 288, 299, fn. 8 .)

We issued a writ of review and placed the matter on calendar. We now conclude that the WCAB does not have authority to reserve…