Brodie

These consolidated cases present the following question: When a worker suffers an industrial injury that results in permanent disability, how should the compensation owed based on the current level of permanent disability be discounted for either previous industrial injury or nonindustrial disabilities? The issue was originally settled by this court in Fuentes v. Workers’ Comp. Appeals Bd. (1976) 16 Cal.3d 1 [ 128 Cal.Rptr. 673 , 547 P.2d 449 ] (Fuentes), but the 2004 omnibus reform of California’s workers’ compensation scheme created doubt as to whether the apportionment formula we adopted in Fuentes had been superseded and a different formula should now be employed. We conclude it has not been superseded and the Fuentes formula remains the correct one to apply in apportioning compensation between causes of disability.

Factual and Procedural Background

These cases arise from five workers’ compensation proceedings with widely differing facts but two unifying aspects. First, in each the injured worker’s current permanent disability level could be attributed in part to one or more previous industrial injuries or to nonindustrial causes. Second, in each the workers’…