Department of Employment Development v. Workers' Compensation Appeals Board

State of California, Employment Development Department (petitioner), seeks review of an order by the Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board (Board), denying its petition for reconsideration of a prior order approving a compromise and release proposed by the worker James J. Griffin and State Compensation Insurance Fund (Fund), the employer’s compensation insurance carrier. Reconsideration was urged on the ground that the Board, in reducing petitioner’s liens for unemployment compensation disability payments made to the respondent Griffin, improperly applied the Baird formula 1 to the facts of this case. (Lab. Code, § 4904.)

*504 Respondent Griffin was employed as a property manager by respondent City of Oakland from November 1967 until November 6, 1974. On that date, shortly before noon, he began having sharp and recurring pains in his left chest area. The pains radiated down his left arm to the elbow which became painful and numb. The pains were accompanied by dizziness and shortness of breath. He told his supervisor that he believed he was having a heart attack. The supervisor drove him to the emergency room at the Oak Knoll Naval Hospital where he was examined, treated…