Collateral Estoppel and the Impact of a Labor Code Section 132a Trial Decision on Feha Claims: an Analysis of Kaur v. Foster Poultry Farms
| Publication year | 2022 |
| Author | JAMES (JIM) J. ACHERMANN, ESQ. |
JAMES (JIM) J. ACHERMANN, ESQ.
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA
California's workers' compensation system provides a distinct set of benefits to injured workers. Many of its codes, regulations, rules, defenses and even courts are separate from the civil law system. That distinct nature requires those practicing within it to be focused on and understand the complexities and nuances of a system that is often foreign to their contemporaries practicing civil law. Workers' compensation attorneys have high caseloads and explore each avenue of the workers' compensation system to achieve benefits for the injured worker.
However, workers' compensation practitioners cannot operate with blinders on, focused solely on their own system of law. The arguments, evidence and decisions made at the Workers' Compensation Appeals Board (WCAB) have a force and effect outside the workers' compensation system. Practitioners of workers' compensation law engage in litigation that can impact injured workers' rights far beyond the scope of their representation at the WCAB, potentially in an adverse way. The case of Kaur v. Foster Poultry Farms (2022) 87 Cal.Comp.Cases 857 provides an interesting reminder that what workers' compensation lawyers do at the WCAB matters both within the confines of that system and beyond.
In Kaur v. Foster Poultry Farms, applicant Gurdip Kaur suffered a workplace injury on April 24, 2013, to her left wrist that was adjudicated through the workers' compensation system. Ms. Kaur underwent surgery and ultimately was restricted in the use of her upper-left extremity but was able to return to work after surgery. When Foster Farms underwent a restructuring in 2016, Kaur was terminated based on an elimination of her position and a claim that the only open position available to her would be that of pallet jack driver, a position she was unable to do with her injury.
Through the workers' compensation system, Kaur filed a Labor Code section 132a claim at the WCAB. Shortly thereafter, she filed a complaint of disability discrimination with the Department of Fair Employment and Housing that led to a civil Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) action. In her civil complaint, Ms. Kaur alleged disability discrimination, failure to engage in the interactive process and failure to provide reasonable accommodation, in addition to other claims. Ms. Kaur's Labor Code section 132a claim was litigated before a workers'...
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