Amaya Cano, Walter

Decedent Walter Amaya Cano died from an injury sustained on June 30, 2006, and the WCJ found the death industrial, rejecting an intoxication defense, and found dual employment with joint and several liability between Bella Toluca, LLC/Nile Niami and Apex Design Builders, Inc. The WCJ awarded the full $320,000 death benefit divided equally among three dependents (decedent's brother, sister, and mother), plus a special death benefit, attorney fees of $48,000, and $5,000 in burial expenses. State Compensation Insurance Fund petitioned for reconsideration, challenging industrial causation, the dependency findings, the brother's eligibility for the conclusive presumption under section 3501(a) and continuing payments under section 4703.5(a), and the absence of any finding on decedent's wife's dependency claim. After the Board issued an interim order granting reconsideration and referred the matter to a status conference, the parties reached a proposed Compromise and Release. The Board rescinded the November 28, 2023 Findings of Fact, Orders, and Award and returned the matter to the WCJ to consider the C&R, without ruling on the merits.