Benavides
Benavides v. Workers' Compensation Appeals Board & Specialty Risk Services
Opinion
Opinion
Kitching, J.
INTRODUCTION
Leopoldo Benavides and his employer’s workers’ compensation insurance carrier agreed in a stipulated award that Benavides was injured in the course and scope of his employment leaving him 51 percent permanently disabled.
Following a timely petition to reopen, the workers’ compensation judge (WCJ) found Benavides to be 72 percent permanently disabled, based on a report prepared by the agreed medical evaluator (AME) subsequent to entry of the stipulated award. The Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board (appeals board), on a two-to-one vote, rescinded the disability rating. The majority concluded there was not good cause to reopen the case because the AME’s new report relied on an abnormal electromyography (EMG) test that was performed before the stipulated judgment was entered, but which the AME had failed to review.
We granted Benavides’s petition for a writ of review. We conclude there was good cause to reopen the case and therefore annul the decision of the appeals board and remand with directions to reinstate the WCJ’s award of a 72 percent disability rating.