Robinson, Kathy

Applicant Kathy Robinson, a teacher for Berkeley Unified School District, claimed psychiatric injury from occupational exposures with a January 3, 2012 date of injury. After multiple rounds of trial and reconsideration, the WCJ repeatedly found applicant's psychiatric claim non-compensable, reasoning that 40% nonindustrial causation plus 15% attributable to a good-faith personnel action (a supervisor reprimand) meant industrial causes were not predominant. The Board found this analysis legally erroneous because the supervisor reprimand was an actual event of employment that could not be added back to nonindustrial factors to defeat predominance. Since QME Dr. Eerkens attributed 60% of the disability to four actual employment events, predominance was satisfied, and only one of the four events (the reprimand, causing 15%) qualified as a good-faith personnel action—below the 35-40% substantial cause threshold. The Board issued a Notice of Intention to set aside the May 31, 2022 F&O and substitute findings that applicant sustained an industrial psychiatric injury not barred by section 3208.3(h), exercising its continuing jurisdiction under section 5803 to correct a legal error despite applicant's untimely petition.