Southern California Gas Co. Permissibly Self-Insured Timothy Lawrence WORKERS’ COMPENSATION APPEALS BOARDSTATE OF CALIFORNIATIMOTHY LAWRENCE, Applicant,vs.SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA GAS CO., Permissibly Self-Insured, Defendant.Case No. ADJ3212745 (PAS 040315)OPINION AND ORDER GRANTING RECONSIDERATION AND DECISIONAFTER RECONSIDERATION Applicant seeks reconsideration of a workers’ compensation administrative law judge’s (WCJ) Findings and Award of February 2, 2010 wherein it was found that, while employed as a station assistant during a cumulative period from September 19, 1977 to April 8, 1996, applicant sustained admitted industrial injury to his spine and psyche1 causing permanent disability of 73.75% after apportionment, and the need for further medical treatment. The WCJ found permanent disability of 73.75% after submitting rating instructions to the Division of Workers’ Compensation, Disability Evaluation Unit (DEU), which read: “Please Rate: Lumbar Spine — Limited to part time very sedentary work, constant moderate to severe back pain with opiate dependency. Substantial scoliosis with an inability to complete (sic) in the open labor market. (50% non-industrial).” With regard to the applicant’s psychiatric disability, the WCJ’s rating instructions to the DEU were comprised of a worksheet containing the eight “work function impairment” values. (1988 Schedule for Rating Permanent Disabilities at p. 1-B.) The DEU recommended an 85% rating for the applicant’s spine disability which was adjusted to 87% after factoring the applicant’s age and occupation, and which was then lowered to 43.5% after apportioning half of the 1 The WCJ’s decision actually lists the injured body parts as the “lumbar spine and back.” However in his Report and Recommendation on Petition for Reconsideration, the WCJ acknowledges that this was a clerical error and that the correct body parts are the spine and psyche. , applicant’s spine disability to non-
