Hertz Car Sales; AIG; And Cambridge Integrated Services (Adjusting Agent) Joseph Baglione WORKERS’ COMPENSATION APPEALS BOARDSTATE OF CALIFORNIAJOSEPH BAGLIONE, Applicant,Vs.HERTZ CAR SALES; AIG; and CAMBRIDGE INTEGRATED SERVICES (Adjusting Agent), Defendant(s). Case No. SJO 0251644OPINION AND DECISION AFTER RECONSIDERATION (EN BANC) Defendant, being newly aggrieved, seeks reconsideration of the en banc decision issued by the Appeals Board on January 24, 2007. In that decision, the Appeals Board held, by a 4 to 3 majority, that because a comprehensive medical-legal report had issued in this case prior to January 1, 2005, the 1997 Schedule for Rating Permanent Disabilities (1997 Schedule) applied under Labor Code section 4660(d),1 whether or not the comprehensive medical-legal report indicated the existence of permanent disability. In so holding, the Appeals Board majority reversed the workers’ compensation administrative law judge (WCJ) who, in the Findings and Award issued on October 23, 2006, had applied the 2005 Schedule for Rating Permanent Disabilities (2005 Schedule) to the applicant’s June 18, 2003 industrial low back injury because there was no report from a treating physician indicating the existence of permanent disability and no dispute that the comprehensive medical-legal report likewise did not indicate the existence of permanent disability. In accordance with the majority’s opinion, this matter was returned to the trial level for the applicant’s permanent disability to be rated under the 1997 Schedule. The three dissenting commissioners disagreed with the majority’s interpretation of section 4660(d), and would have affirmed the WCJ’s decision. 1 Unless otherwise indicated, all further statutory references are to the Labor Code. , Defendant contends that (1) the majority’s opinion is contrary to the intent of the Legislature in enacting Senate Bill (SB) 899; (2) as explained by the WCJ, the last antecedent rule relied on by the
