Gustavo De La Cruz — ADJ10527650, ADJ11246444

Applicant Gustavo De La Cruz, an auto painter, settled his bilateral knee injury claim via stipulated award on 4/4/24, then proceeded to trial on penalties, interest, sanctions, and attorney fees. The WCJ awarded a 20% Labor Code section 5814 penalty ($5,829.74) for an 82-day unreasonable delay in paying retroactive TD for 4/11/19 through 12/19/19, but denied claims under sections 5800, 5813, and 5814.5 and awarded no attorney fees from the penalty. Applicant sought reconsideration challenging the denials and the absence of attorney fees. The Appeals Board adopted and incorporated the WCJ's Report, granted reconsideration to amend the decision to allow 15% attorney fees ($874.00) from the penalty and to correct Finding of Fact number one to reflect a specific injury to bilateral knees on September 29, 2015, and otherwise affirmed the decision.