Guadalupe Rodriguez — ADJ8984436

Applicant Guadalupe Rodriguez, a senior investigative technician for the County of Riverside, claimed psychiatric and internal injuries. The WCJ found no AOE/COE and that the claim was barred by Labor Code section 3208.3(h)'s good faith personnel action defense. On reconsideration, the Board first addressed a section 5909 timeliness issue, applying Shipley equitable tolling because the district office failed to timely transmit the case. On the merits, the Board found that the psychiatric QME (Dr. Desai) consistently opined the injury was solely caused by actual events of employment, so applicant met her burden showing predominant industrial causation, while defendant failed to meet its burden that lawful, nondiscriminatory good faith personnel actions were a substantial cause. The Board rescinded the F&O and substituted findings that applicant sustained injury to psyche and internal system and that compensation was not barred.