Sworn peace officers who are regular employees of a law
enforcement agency are not entitled to the same disability benefits as
volunteer peace officers, according to the Supreme Court’s latest decision.
On October 26th, the California Supreme Court decided the
case of Larkin v. Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board.
The Supreme Court ruled that Labor Code section 4458.2 does not apply to sworn
peace officers who are regular, salaried employees of a law enforcement
agency.
Under Labor Code section 4458.2 an officer’s temporary disability
(or “TD”) benefit is set at the maximum statutory rate instead of being based
on what they were actually earning. This means that if an officer was serving
as a volunteer or reserve officer when they were injured on duty, they would
receive TD benefits as if they were full-time employees of the agency. And the
officer would receive TD benefits at the highest possible rate even if they
were actually paid less while they were working.
This makes a huge difference in the amount an officer is
paid for an on-the-job injury. Normally, an employee’s TD benefit payment is
only two-thirds (2/3) of their regular salary. But under Section 4458.2 an officer would receive the maximum statutory rate of
TD, as if they were among the highest paid employees.
To put this in real terms, in 2008 Police Officer John
Larkin was seriously injured in a vehicle accident while on duty. His average
weekly salary at that time was around $1000. The City of Marysville said it
would only pay Larkin TD at two-thirds of his salary, meaning around $670 per
week. But if Section 4458.2 was applied and Larkin was paid TD at the maximum statutory
rate, he would receive over $900 per week in TD benefits. That is a difference
of more than $10,000 over a year.
Officer Larkin filed a claim for TD benefits under
Section 4458.2. But the Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board ruled for the City
of Marysville and denied his claim. The Court of Appeal then ruled against his
appeal. With attorneys Brian Dixon and Gregory Gomez from the Law Offices of
Mastagni Holstedt, A.P.C. representing him, he took his case all the way to the
California Supreme Court.
Unfortunately, the Supreme Court sided with the City of
Marysville and ruled that Section 4458.2 did not apply to Officer Larkin. The Court
largely deferred to the Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board, although it did
offer some of its own reasons for the ruling.
The Supreme Court’s main justification was that Section
4458.2 was originally written to provide disability coverage to volunteer peace
officers. Officer Larkin’s attorneys pointed out that the
word “volunteer” was removed from the law in 1989 and is not in the other law
it references (Labor Code section 3362). But the Court said that when the State
Legislature made these amendments it did not mean to broaden the law to apply
to all peace officers. To back this up the Court pointed to
certain historical legislative documents and ignored others that did not
support its ruling.
Another reason the Supreme Court gave was that
regular
peace officer employees are covered under Labor Code sections 4850 and
4853.
These laws allow an injured officer to take up to one year of full-paid
leave
and then up to one year of TD benefits at the normal two-thirds rate.
The Court argued that it was “balancing” the interests of regular
and volunteer peace officers by denying regular officers Section 4458.2
benefits.
The Court ignored the reality facing many peace officers in
smaller cities and rural counties. Officers like Larkin choose to serve in
dangerous positions for less pay than their colleagues in wealthier cities and
counties. They should not be punished when they suffer an on-the-job injury. But
now, not only will officers like Larkin get less in TD benefits than many
regular peace officers. They cannot even get the same TD benefits that volunteer
peace officers receive. This ruling affects the rights of more than 73,000 police and sheriff patrol officers across the state. (Employment
Development Department, Police and Sheriff Patrol Officers in California.)
On behalf of the thousands of peace officers hurt by this
inequity, Mastagni Holstedt, A.P.C. hopes the Legislature immediately fixes the law and
overturns the Supreme Court’s ruling.
