Kouzmanoff, Kevin

Kevin Kouzmanoff, a professional baseball player and Colorado resident, filed two California claims: a specific lumbar spine injury sustained April 22/23, 2014 while playing for the Texas Rangers in Oakland, and a cumulative trauma injury covering 2003-2014 across seven teams. The WCJ found that the cumulative trauma claim was barred under Labor Code section 3600.5(c) and (d) because applicant was not hired in California and played more than seven seasons for non-California teams, and that both claims were barred by the statute of limitations. On reconsideration, the Board held that regular employment in California does NOT exempt an athlete from subdivisions (c) and (d) (only a California hire does, per Hansell and Bowen), but that the record was insufficiently developed on whether applicant was hired in California through his California-based agents. The Board also held the specific injury was not time-barred because medical treatment triggered the five-year period under section 5410, and that the cumulative trauma statute of limitations could not be determined without first establishing a section 5412 date of injury. The Board rescinded the Findings of Fact and remanded for further development of the record.