Heavenly Valley And Liberty Mutual Insurance Company Robert Tara (Deceased), WORKERS’ COMPENSATION APPEALS BOARDSTATE OF CALIFORNIAROBERT TARA (Deceased), Applicant,vs.HEAVENLY VALLEY and LIBERTY MUTUAL INSURANCE COMPANY, Defendant.Case No. ADJ7204282OPINION AND ORDER GRANTING REMOVAL AND DECISION AFTER REMOVAL Defendant has filed a timely, verified petition for removal, requesting that the Appeals Board reverse the Order Denying Change of Venue, wherein the presiding workers’ compensation administrative law judge (PWCJ) denied defendant’s petition for change of venue on the ground that defendant did not timely object to venue pursuant to Labor Code section 5501.5(c).1 Defendant contends that it objected timely to applicants’ designation of the San Diego district office as venue. We have not received an answer from applicant. Robert Tara, while employed as a supervisor of a ski patrol, is alleged to have sustained an industrial injury on February 23, 2009, that resulted in his death. Applicants are Tara’s widow and children. They live in Lake Tahoe. They retained Jeffrey Segal of Solana Beach to represent them. Segal filed an Application for Adjudication of Claim and designated the San Diego district office, the county in which he maintains his principal place of business, as venue. Notice of the Application was sent to the parties on April 6, 2010. The Notice included the caçe number and designation of venue. On May 3, 2010. defendant filed a Petition to Change Venud. The Petition was not scanned into HAMS until September 14, 2010. The petition was not available to the PWCJ when he issued the Order Denying Change of Venue. Section 5501.5(c) provides: “If the venue site where the application is to be filed is the county where the employee’s attorney maintains his or her principal place of business, the attorney 1 Unless otherwise specified, all statutory references are to the Labor Code. , for lhe employee shall indícale that venue
