Garibay, Maria

Maria Garibay, a medical secretary for the County of Los Angeles, claimed a psychiatric injury (and later hypertensive cardiovascular disease) arising from conflicts with her supervisor Dr. Kwong and coworkers. The WCJ found an industrial psyche injury but held it barred by the good faith personnel action (GFPA) defense under Labor Code section 3208.3(h). On reconsideration, the WCAB panel held that defendant failed to meet its burden of proving the GFPA defense because it never established that the events causing applicant's injury were 'personnel actions' at all — defendant did not call Dr. Kwong or the HR representative to testify, nor produce the personnel file or investigation records. The Board rescinded the take-nothing award, found the psyche claim is not barred, and returned the matter to the WCJ to consider further development of the record regarding the hypertensive impairment claim.