In what appears to be the first Calif. Labor Code § 4664 "straddle" case, an Appeals Board panel held in Brault v. State of California that permanent disability awarded to an applicant under the 2005 Permanent Disability Rating Schedule for a 12/29/98 injury could not be apportioned based upon a prior permanent disability award made to the applicant for a 1/6/95 injury under the 1997 Schedule for Rating Permanent Disabilities because the rating methods in the two different schedules were irreconcilable. The Appeals Board held that the applicant's 12/29/98 injury caused 7-percent permanent disability, after apportionment of 1-percent to the 1/6/95 injury made pursuant to a physician's determination that the prior injury produced permanent disability equivalent to 1-percent when calculated under the 2005 Schedule.

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Caution: This decision has not been designated a ``significant panel decision'' by the Workers' Compensation Appeals Board. Practitioners should proceed with caution when citing to this panel decision and should also verify the subsequent history of the decision. WCAB panel decisions are citeable authority, particularly on issues of contemporaneous administrative construction of statutory language [see Griffin v. WCAB (1989) 209 Cal. App. 3d 1260, 1264, fn. 2, 54 Cal. Comp. Cases 145]. However, WCAB panel decisions are not binding precedent, as are en banc decisions, on all other Appeals Board panels and workers' compensation judges [see Gee v. Workers' Comp. Appeals Bd. (2002) 96 Cal. App. 4th 1418, 1425 fn. 6, 67 Cal. Comp. Cases 236]. LexisNexis editorial consultants have deemed this panel decision noteworthy because it does one or more of the following: (1) Establishes a new rule of law, applies an existing rule to a set of facts significantly different from those stated in other decisions, or modifies, or criticizes with reasons given, an existing rule; (2) Resolves or creates an apparent conflict in the law; (3) Involves a legal issue of continuing public interest; (4) Makes a significant contribution to legal literature by reviewing either the development of workers’ compensation law or the legislative, regulatory, or judicial history of a constitution, statute, regulation, or other written law; and/or (5) Makes a contribution to the body of law available to attorneys, claims personnel, judges, the Board, and others seeking to understand the workers’ compensation law of California.

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