Sanchez, Francisco

Francisco Sanchez, a vice-president and 10% shareholder of West Coast Docks, Inc., claimed a cumulative trauma injury to his back and heart ending December 12, 2014. The threshold issue was whether he was covered by workers' compensation insurance or whether he had validly excluded himself by signing a Corporate Officers or Directors Exclusion Letter on February 28, 2002. The arbitrator found that Sanchez was a genuine officer/shareholder (not a rank and file worker), that his exclusion was not a sham, and that he was bound by the exclusion letter he signed. The WCAB adopted and incorporated the arbitrator's report, gave great weight to the arbitrator's credibility determinations under Garza, and denied the Petition for Reconsideration.