Garcia, Michael

Applicant Michael Garcia, a firefighter for the City of Seaside, sustained a psychiatric injury (CT 12/20/2018-1/5/2020) and was deemed temporarily totally disabled as of November 1, 2020. He had prior hypertension cumulative injury claims for which defendant paid Labor Code section 4850 salary continuation benefits from November 2, 2020 through November 1, 2021. The WCJ found that defendant's payment of section 4850 benefits on the companion hypertension claim did not preclude section 4850 benefits in the psychiatric claim, because applicant is entitled to up to one year of section 4850 benefits per injury. The Board, after granting reconsideration to study the issues, affirmed the WCJ's Findings, holding that section 4850 benefits are payable on a per-injury basis, while temporary disability payments for overlapping periods count toward the single 104-week cap under section 4656(c)(2).