Mario Acosta — ADJ1565410, ADJ916013

Applicant Mario Acosta sought Subsequent Injuries Benefits Trust Fund (SIBTF) benefits based on a 2006 left shoulder injury (awarded 23% PD) combined with preexisting disabilities including a 1995 right shoulder injury, internal diseases (diabetes, hypertension, coronary artery disease), and a 2002 brain injury (awarded 75% PD). The WCJ found applicant entitled to SIBTF benefits and permanently totally disabled, but SIBTF sought reconsideration on multiple grounds including insufficiency of findings, failure to prove the 5% opposite-and-corresponding threshold, failure to prove a labor-disabling preexisting disability, and improper reliance on an unadmitted medical report (Dr. Malhotra). The WCAB granted reconsideration, rescinded the Findings and Award, and substituted findings that applicant sustained an industrial injury and that the SIBTF claim was not barred by any limitations period, deferring all other issues. The Board concluded the original Findings and Award lacked the specific findings required by section 5313 to support SIBTF eligibility, including failure to identify the subsequent disability percentage, the preexisting injuries and their percentages, and whether the preexisting disabilities were labor disabling at the time of the subsequent injury.