Thomas Davenport worked for Michael Faeth Cleaners (MFC) under its contract with Camp Pendleton to dry-clean military clothing. He lived in a hotel on the base and MFC paid for his room and board. One day, while Davenport was cooking in his hotel room, a grease fire started and Davenport was burned on his arms, hand, and face. He was first treated at a hospital and then spent more than a week at a burn center.
Davenport was left with big medical bills from the hospital and burn center. At the time, he didn’t file a workers’ compensation claim or ask MFC to pay his bills because an attorney he consulted told him he didn’t have a case.
Late Comp Claim Denied
Six years later, though, Daven- port claimed he discovered that he might actually have a workers’ compensation claim for the injuries (because the injury occurred in connection with his employment). So he filed a claim with the State Compensation Insurance Fund (SCIF), which was MFC’s insurer when the injury occurred. A workers’ comp judge threw out the claim because it wasn’t filed within one year of the injury.
Employer Failed to Provide Required Notice
But now a California appeals court has sided with Davenport, ruling that he wasn’t barred from filing a workers’ comp claim because of the six-year delay.1 Why? The employer, said the court, didn’t provide Davenport with information required by law about his workers’ comp rights.
The court explained that the Labor Code states that within one day of receiving notice of a qualifying injury, the employer must give the injured worker a workers’ compensation claim form, along with information about the person’s workers’ compensation rights and remedies. This notice, said the court, must be provided if there’s a possibility that the worker might have a claim for workers’ comp benefits. When an employer doesn’t provide this notice, the one-year time limit for filing a claim is tolled until the employee gains knowledge of his workers’ compensation rights.
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Here, there was no evidence that Davenport knew that he might be entitled to workers’ comp benefits until six years after being injured. In fact, having been told by an attorney early on that he had no workers’ comp rights, Davenport had no reason to know he was entitled to benefits.
What to Do
This case underscores the importance of providing an injured worker with notice of his or her workers’ compensation rights. Within one working day of finding out about an on-the-job injury that results in lost work time beyond the day of injury or requires medical treatment that is more than first aid, you must provide the injured worker with the Employee’s Claim for Workers’ Compensation Benefits (DWC Form 1), either in person or by first-class mail. The form is available from your insurer or from the Department of Industrial Relations, Division of Workers’ Compensation. Online subscribers can link to the new case from the online version of this article.
(Davenport v. Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board, Calif. Court of Appeal (3rd Dist.) No. C049380, 2005 (unpublished))