California Mens Colony, State Comp. Ins. Fund, Subsequent Injuries Benefits Trust Fund Dennis Timmons WORKERS’ COMPENSATION APPEALS BOARDSTATE OF CALIFORNIADENNIS TIMMONS, Applicant,vs.CALIFORNIA MENS COLONY, STATE COMP. INS. FUND, SUBSEQUENT INJURIES BENEFITS TRUST FUND, Defendants.Case Nos. ADJ1438639 (GRO 0024593)ADJ3262777 (GRO 0025366)OPINION AND ORDER DENYING PETITION FOR RECONSIDERATION Applicant, Dennis Timmons, seeks reconsideration of the Appeals Board’s Decision After Reconsideration, wherein we reversed the Findings and Award, issued April 19, 2011, in which a workers’ compensation administrative law judge (WCJ) found the Subsequent Injuries Benefits Trust Fund (SIBTF) liable to applicant for benefits of 100% permanent disability. In our Decision After Reconsideration, we found applicant was not entitled to SIBTF benefits as the medical evidence did not establish that, at the time of his April 13, 2000 industrial injury, applicant had an existing permanent partial disability from his 1991 cervical fusion surgery. Applicant contests our finding that he did not establish his entitlement to SIBTF benefits, arguing that his 1991 industrial injury, requiring a cervical discectomy and fusion, necessarily caused “a previous disability or impairment” because the fusion caused a partial loss of function of his body. Alternatively, applicant argues that the determination of what constitutes a “previous disability or impairment” under Labor Code section 4751 must be consistent with the ‘new regime of apportionment to causation’ created by SB 899. Applicant asserts that since the retroactive prophylactic work restriction found by AME Schwartz would now suffice to support apportionment to a pre-existing permanent disability, applicant has met his burden to establish entitlement to SIBTF benefits. Defendant has filed an answer to applicant’s petition, contending that our determination that , applicant had not established he suffered
