California Labor Code § 5405

Determinative passage · p.2On December 15, 2025, the WCJ issued the F&O, determining in relevant part that applicant met his burden of establishing injury to the cervical spine, left knee, right thumb, right large toe, and internal system. The WCJ found that applicant's date of injury under section 5412 was "in 2004," that defendant was not estopped from asserting the running of the statute of limitations, and that compensation for applicant's claim was barred under section 5405. (Findings of Fact, Nos. 2-4.) The WCJ also determined that applicant's claim was barred by laches. (Finding

The WCAB determined that compensation was not barred because the date of injury was May 4, 2021, and the claim was filed within one year.

Determinative passage · p.6Notwithstanding the definition of "date of injury" contained in sections 3212.86, 3212.87, or 3212.88, COVID-19 is generally considered a specific injury. Defendant contends that applicant's claim is barred by the one year statute of limitations to apply for workers' compensation benefits pursuant to section 5405. With respect to whether applicant's claims are barred by the statute of limitations, the three points designated in section 5405 as the start of the one year statute of limitations period are: date of injury; the last payment of disability indemnity; and the last date on which medical treatment benefits were furnished.

The WCAB found the burden of proof for the statute of limitations rests with the defendant and that the applicant's knowledge of industrial causation was not established until the AME evaluation in 2024.

Determinative passage · p.5Finally, in De Lay v. CIGA (2019) 84 Cal.Comp.Cases 934, the Appeals Board rescinded the WCJ's decision that section 5405 barred CIGA's petition for reimbursement for a subsequent injury against a permissibly self-insured employer for benefits paid by CIGA up through the date of trial. The Appeals Board relied on the California Supreme Court case of Plotnick v. Workers' Comp. Appeals Bd. (1970) 1 Cal. 3d 622, 623-626 [35 Cal.Comp. Cases 13]), holding that medical treatment provided by an employer for an earlier injury that also overlaps with treatment for a subsequent injury may toll the statute of limitations for the subsequent injury under section 5405(c). In Plotnick, the injured worker sustained successive injuries to the same body part. (Id. at pp. 623-624.) The Supreme Court found that "[i]t follows inevitably" that any medical treatment received from the employer for a previous injury "must to some extent have been designed to relieve [the injured employee] from the effects" of the subsequent injury, even when the treatment "may also had as their purpose to relieve petitioner from the effects of the original injury." (Id. at pp. 625-626.) The Supreme Court therefore held that filing of the claim was timely within the one year of the provision of medical treatment pursuant to section 5405(c). (Id.)

The WCJ must determine when CIGA last paid benefits to apply section 5405(c) tolling.

Determinative passage · p.4Thus, an applicant must commence proceedings with the WCAB within one year of (1) the date of injury; or (2) the expiration of the period covered by the employer's last payment of disability indemnity; or (3) the date of the last furnishing by the employer of medical, surgical or hospital treatment. (J.T. Thorp v. Workers' Comp. Appeals. Bd. (1984) 153 Cal.App.3d 327, 333-334 [49 Cal.Comp.Cases 224].)

The WCJ applied this standard to determine timeliness of the claim.

Determinative passage · p.2We have considered the allegations of the Petition for Reconsideration and the contents of the Report. Based on our review of the record, and for the reasons discussed below, we will grant reconsideration and affirm the F&O, except that we will amend it to find that the section 5412 date of injury was May 4, 2021 (Finding of Fact No. 2); that compensation is not barred by section 5405 (Finding of Fact No. 3); and that applicant is not estopped from claiming injury under the equitable doctrine of laches (Finding of Fact No. 5).

The WCAB found the claim was filed within one year of the May 4, 2021 date of injury, so the statute did not bar the claim.

Determinative passage · p.112. Date of injury under section 5412. The injury claimed in this matter is a cumulative trauma injury. Date of injury for cumulative injury claims is established under section 5412, which states:

The WCJ and WCAB applied these statutes to determine the date of injury and whether the claim was barred by the statute of limitations.

Determinative passage · p.12(Lab. Code, § 5405.) The statute of limitations is an affirmative defense, and therefore, the burden of proof rests

Defendant failed to meet burden to establish date statute of limitations began to run; WCJ erred in barring claim based on incomplete findings.

Determinative passage · p.7We previously explained that applicant did not become aware that she had sustained an injury for which he could file a workers' compensation claim until July 6, 2020, and the pleadings record shows that she filed her claim on July 9, 2020. (Application for Adjudication, July 9, 2020, p. 1.) Since applicant's claim was filed within the one-year statutory period, it was timely.

Applied to find claim timely as filed within one year of injury knowledge