Superior Care Facilities v. Workers' Compensation Appeals Board

Forest Place Residential Health, a business entity licensed to operate a residential care facility, and its management company, Superior Care Facilities, petition for a writ of review of the Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board (Board) order compelling them to provide the applicant, Ramona Calderon, her statutory remedies for her wrongful termination following a work-related injury. Since an earlier management company, now bankrupt, employed the applicant, petitioners contend they are not responsible for the statutory remedies provided by Labor Code section 132a. We shall annul the Board’s order in part and remand for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

Facts and Procedural Background

On June 19, 1989, Calderon, a personal care attendant at Forest Place, filed an application for adjudication of her claim for compensation for the injury she sustained while lifting a patient. She also filed a petition for additional benefits asserting she was terminated for exercising her workers’ compensation rights. (Lab. Code, § 132a.) In both the application and petition, Forest Place was named as her employer and the State Compensation Insurance Fund as the insurer for…