Bianchi v. City of San Diego, D007565

• Decision Date: 30 August 1989
• Docket Number: No. D007565,D007565
• Court: California Court of Appeals Court of Appeals
• Parties: John J. BIANCHI, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. The CITY OF SAN DIEGO et al., Defendants and Appellants.

Page 566

262 Cal.Rptr. 566

214 Cal.App.3d 563

John J. BIANCHI, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. The CITY OF SAN DIEGO et al., Defendants and Appellants.

No. D007565.

Court of Appeal, Fourth District, Division 1, California.

Aug. 30, 1989.

As Modified Sept. 27, 1989.

Review Denied Nov. 15, 1989.

John W. Witt, City Atty., Ronald L. Johnson, Asst. City Atty., Eugene P. Gordon, Chief Deputy, and Steven R. Gustavson, Deputy for Defendants and appellants.

Thistle & Krinsky and Patrick J. Thistle, San Diego, for Plaintiff and respondent.

FROEHLICH, Associate Justice.

City of San Diego (City) appeals from a judgment granting John J. Bianchi's petition for a writ of mandamus. The judgment ordered the City and the San Diego City Retirement Board of Administration (Retirement Board) to grant Bianchi's application for industrial disability retirement benefits. We conclude the trial court erred when it accorded collateral estoppel effect to the prior Workers' Compensation Appeals Board (WCAB) award, and accordingly, we reverse the judgment.

1. Factual Background

Bianchi was employed by the San Diego Police Department commencing in March of 1972. During the course of his employment, he allegedly suffered orthopedic and psychiatric injuries, and sought workers' compensation benefits, filing two separate applications. Bianchi's first application (Case No. 83 SD 76108) claimed he suffered a continuous-trauma injury to his psyche, arising out of and occurring in the course of his employment from March 1972 to November 29, 1982. In his second application (Case No. 83 SD 76109), Bianchi claimed he suffered orthopedic and psychiatric injuries as the result of a specific The findings and awards on both applications, which had been consolidated for hearing and decision, were issued by the WCAB judge on December 18, 1985. On Bianchi's first application (the continuous-trauma-psychiatric injury), the judge ruled Bianchi did not sustain a continuous-trauma injury to his psyche arising out of his employment from March 1972 to November 29, 1982. On the second application (the specific-trauma claim), however, the judge found Bianchi had sustained compensable work-related injuries arising out of the November 29, 1982 incident. The injuries found to be work related were injuries to Bianchi's head, back and right hand, together with an associated "intermittent minimal to slight depressive disorder." On the specific-trauma claim, the WCAB judge found Bianchi had suffered a permanent disability of 12- 3/4 percent, and awarded Bianchi $2,887.50, together with reimbursement of or payment for certain medical expenses.

incident on November 29, 1982, when he was involved in an altercation while arresting a burglary suspect. He claimed orthopedic injuries to his right hand, jaw and lower back.

Bianchi subsequently applied to the Retirement Board for industrial disability retirement, claiming he was permanently incapacitated from performing his job as the result of his orthopedic and psychiatric injuries. At the Retirement Board hearing the parties stipulated that Bianchi was permanently incapacitated. However, the City disputed that the psychiatric condition which incapacitated Bianchi was industrially caused. After hearing evidence regarding the nature of Bianchi's disabilities, both orthopedic and psychiatric, and evidence concerning the causes of each of those sets of disabilities, the Retirement Board denied Bianchi's claim that the disabilities permanently incapacitating Bianchi were industrially caused. Specifically, the Retirement Board concluded that Bianchi's orthopedic injuries, although work related, did not incapacitate Bianchi from performing his job duties. The Retirement Board further found Bianchi suffered from psychiatric disabilities which did permanently incapacitate him, but concluded the incapacitating psychiatric disabilities ¹ were not the result of his employment as a police officer, but were instead the result of a combination of non-work-related stresses. Accordingly, the Retirement Board denied Bianchi's application for industrial disability retirement.

Bianchi thereafter petitioned for a writ of mandate to compel the Retirement Board to grant his application for industrial disability retirement. He contended the WCAB award in the specific-trauma claim, which found some component of his psychiatric disability to be work related, collaterally estopped the City from litigating whether Bianchi's psychiatric problems were work related. The superior court agreed with Bianchi's contention and issued its writ of mandate to compel the Retirement Board to grant Bianchi's application. This appeal followed.

2. The Superior Court Erroneously Granted Collateral Estoppel Effect to the WCAB Award Because the Issues and Parties Were Not Identical

The sole issue is whether the superior court correctly granted collateral estoppel effect to the WCAB award. A party may be collaterally estopped from relitigating a previously adjudicated issue if (1) the issue previously and necessarily adjudicated is identical with the issue sought to be relitigated; (2) the prior adjudication resulted in a final judgment; and (3) the party against whom collateral estoppel is invoked was a party to, or was in privity with a party to, the prior adjudication. (Producers Dairy Delivery Co. v. Sentry Ins. Co. (1986) 41 Cal.3d 903, 910, 226 Cal.Rptr. 558, 718 P.2d 920.)

Under limited circumstances, a WCAB award to an employee may collaterally estop the employee's retirement board from relitigating issues previously decided in the WCAB proceeding. (See, e.g., French v. Rishell (1953) 40 Cal.2d 477, 254 P.2d 26.) However, the courts have more frequently declined to give WCAB rulings collateral estoppel effect in subsequent retirement board proceedings, either because of a lack of identity of parties (see, e.g., Preciado v. County of Ventura (1982) 143 Cal.App.3d 783, 789, 192 Cal.Rptr. 253), or because of differences between the nature of the issues considered during a workers' compensation proceeding and the nature of issues considered by a retirement board proceeding. (See generally, Reynolds v. City of San Carlos (1981) 126 Cal.App.3d 208, 212-213, 178 Cal.Rptr. 636; Harmon v. Board of Retirement (1976) 62 Cal.App.3d 689, 697, 133 Cal.Rptr. 154.)

Based on our review of the facts of this case, we conclude there was neither an identity of issues nor an identity of parties, rendering collateral estoppel inapplicable in this case.

A. There Was No Identity of Issues

The lack of identity of issues is frequently invoked to deny collateral estoppel effect to a prior WCAB ruling in a subsequent retirement board proceeding. Generally, a WCAB proceeding decides whether the employee suffered any job-related injury. If that injury results in some permanent residual loss (i.e., loss of normal use of a body part, impaired earning capacity, or some other competitive handicap in the labor market), the WCAB awards the employee a permanent disability rating. (See generally, State Compensation Ins. Fund v. Industrial Acc. Com. (1963) 59 Cal.2d 45, 52, 27 Cal.Rptr. 702, 377 P.2d 902 [defining meaning of permanent partial disability under workers' compensation law].) Retirement boards, on the other hand, focus on a different issue: whether an employee has suffered an injury or disease of such magnitude and nature that he is incapacitated from substantially performing his job responsibilities. (See generally, Winn v. Board of Pension Commissioners (1983) 149 Cal.App.3d 532, 539, 197 Cal.Rptr. 111.) Because of the differences in the issues, "[a] finding by the WCAB of permanent disability, which may be partial for the purposes of workers' compensation, does not bind the retirement board on the issue of the employee's incapacity to perform his duties." (Reynolds v. City of San Carlos, supra, 126 Cal.App.3d at p. 215, 178 Cal.Rptr. 636.)

Here, the limited issue litigated in the WCAB specific-trauma claim was whether Bianchi suffered any permanent disability as a result of work-related orthopedic and/or psychiatric injuries. The WCAB found work-related orthopedic injuries had been incurred, and also found some minor (i.e., minimal to slight) injury to Bianchi's psyche, denominated as a "depressive disorder," which was determined to be intermittent. The combined impact of the entire set of injuries, both orthopedic and psychiatric, supported a permanent partial disability rating of only 12- 3/4 percent. ²

The Retirement Board considered a significantly different issue: whether Bianchi was incapable of substantially performing his duties, and if so, whether the set of injuries or disabilities which caused the incapacity resulted from Bianchi's employment. The Retirement Board first concluded that Bianchi's orthopedic injuries, although work related, did not incapacitate him from performing his duties. Such a conclusion was entirely supportable. (Reynolds v. City of San Carlos, supra, 126 Cal.App.3d at p. 215, 178 Cal.Rptr. 636.)

The Retirement Board then considered whether the set of psychiatric problems which did incapacitate Bianchi was work-related. At the Retirement Board hearings, Bianchi did not attribute the entire set of incapacitating psychiatric disabilities to the specific, November 29, 1982 incident.

                To the contrary, Bianchi's counsel argued (and his expert doctor testified) that the incapacitating psychiatric disorders were principally the product of long-term job-related stress and strain. 3  The Retirement Board, after considering the opinions of numerous expert doctors, concluded that the psychiatric disabilities which in fact incapacitated Bianchi were not work related, but instead had their genesis in non-job-related stresses
                

Thus, the "issue" decided by the WCAB award was not identical to the "issue" litigated before the Retirement Board: (1) the WCAB dealt with work-relatedness of a disorder associated with a single incident, whereas the ...