Ai Zhen Huang v. L.A. Haute

The question presented on this appeal is whether the presumption of negligence in Labor Code section 3708 includes a presumption that the injury occurred in the course of the worker’s employment. We conclude it does not. An employee seeking damages from an uninsured employer has the same burden of proof as an employee seeking workers’ compensation benefits: the employee bears the burden of proving her injury was sustained in the course of her employment. Under section 3708, if an injury arising from the employment is shown, it is presumed to have resulted from the employer’s negligence, and the employer is required to rebut that presumption to avoid liability. The trial court concluded Huang did not meet her burden to prove her injury arose from her employment, impliedly declining to believe Huang’s testimony that she was injured during her employment, and instead crediting other evidence from which it could be inferred her story was not true. Since there was substantial evidence to support the court’s conclusion, we are obliged to affirm the judgment in the employer’s favor.

Factual and Procedural Background

Ai Zhen Huang was employed as a housekeeper, working and living at the home of Brad Hunter, but was on the payroll of L.A. Haute, a furniture manufacturing business in which Hunter was a partner. She was employed in that capacity for about two years, until she was terminated on April 15, 1999.

On August 9, 2000, Huang filed this negligence action against Hunter and L.A. Haute (collectively, the employer). She alleged that on April 14, 1999, the day before her termination, she was injured in a fall from a ladder on which she had climbed to wash the top of a high window in Hunter’s home. Huang’s suit was authorized under Labor Code section 3706, which permits an injured employee to sue an employer who fails to secure workers’ compensation insurance.^[1] Hunter filed a cross-complaint against Huang for battery, alleging Huang assaulted him when he fired her, and for negligence, asserting she hosed down new limestone floors inside his house, causing damage to the floors and walls. Both Hunter and L.A. Haute sued Huang for unlawful tenancy, alleging Huang allowed her daughter to live in Hunter’s home without permission and falsely listed Hunter’s home as her daughter’s address in school records, and for identity fraud and unfair business practices, alleging Huang used L.A. Haute information and forged names on forms to secure a home loan after her termination.

A bench trial was held in October 2001. According to Huang’s testimony, she was between five and eight feet up the ladder at the time of the fall; she clarified that her feet were about five feet off the ground when she fell. Ordinarily she used a squeegee about three feet long when she washed the windows. She told Hunter about her fall from the ladder that same evening and told him she needed to see a doctor, but he did not offer to send her to a doctor. The next day, Hunter told Huang to damp-mop the grout from new limestone floors after the construction crew left. That evening, when the workers left around 10:00 p.m., she was in pain and could not carry a pail of water into the house to mop the floor. Instead, she brought a hose into the house to fill the pail and overfilled it, covering the floor with water. Hunter arrived home at this point and became very angry. After Huang and Hunter got the water out of the newly paved rooms around 11:30 p.m., Hunter fired Huang. He told her to leave immediately. Huang became upset and angry, and begged Hunter to let her stay the night, but he refused. Huang left that night. Shortly thereafter, Huang filed a workers’ compensation claim for her injuries, and later filed this suit.^[2]

Hunter testified that on April 14, 1999, Huang did not tell him she had fallen or was in pain. He stated the window Huang said she was cleaning when she was injured—which Huang also identified from photos—was a sliding glass door eight feet high. A plot plan and photograph were introduced in evidence. According to Hunter, he did not own a ladder at the time, and his current housekeeper, who is shorter than Huang, cleans the door using the squeegee and with no need for a ladder. As to the events of the following day, Hunter testified he returned home to find water flowing under the front door and running down the stairs into the street. The walls were wet, and water was a couple inches deep in certain places. He was shocked and upset, fired Huang and asked her to leave. He knew she lived with her brother on weekends and was not concerned about where she would go. Huang dragged her TV, VCR and suitcases to her car; she showed no sign of pain or injury and did not mention any injury. Huang became hysterical, and Hunter called the police, who forced Huang to leave. The water from the hose damaged the plaster walls of Hunter’s home and caused wiring problems. Hunter testified he was not notified of Huang’s injury until several months after her termination.^[3]

In addition to testimony from Huang and Hunter, Huang presented medical testimony about her injury from Dr. H. Vincent Mitzelfelt.^[4] Mitzelfelt testified that tests revealed bulging and protruding discs in Huang’s lumbar spine area. Mitzelfelt testified Huang’s injuries were consistent with the fall as Huang described it in the patient history given to him.^[5] He prescribed medications, physical therapy, ultrasound treatment, hot packs and the like. When this course of treatment did not produce satisfactory results, Mitzelfelt sent Huang to an organization called Pain Net for epidural injections and sympathetic blocks, and eventually recommended surgery. Prior to Mitzelfelt’s testimony, counsel offered Huang’s medical bills and reports in evidence. The court sustained the employer’s objection on grounds of lack of foundation, lack of authentication, and hearsay, telling Huang’s counsel it would reconsider the ruling if Huang were later able to lay a foundation. Huang’s counsel made no further motion for admission of the documents.

After trial was concluded, the court found, “[bjased upon all the evidence and the credibility of the witnesses,” that (1) Huang did not meet her burden of proof “that she was injured at Defendants’ premises or in her employment by Defendants,” and (2) the employer did not meet its burden of proof to establish the necessary elements of any of the claims made in the cross-complaint. Judgment was entered on November 29, 2001, and Huang then filed this appeal.

Discussion

Huang’s principal argument is that the trial court did not properly apply the presumption of negligence required by Labor Code section 3708.

—Other cases under Labor Code section 3708 are to a similar effect. (See, e.g., Lee v. Cranford (1951) 107 Cal.App.2d 677 , 679 [ 237 P.2d 986 ] [“it is plain under the language of the statute that if the evidence shows plaintiff was an employee of the defendant at the time, then any injury he sustained while in the course of business of his employer must be classed as being proximately due to the negligence of the employer and that the negligence, if any, of the employee is not a defense thereto”]; Peters v. California Building-Loan Assn. (1931) 116 Cal.App. 143 , 154 [ 2 P.2d 439 ] [“it is true that appellant may be entitled to the presumption of negligence on the part of the employer, if the evidence supports the finding of an injury received arising out of the employment”].)

—The facts in Greitz v. Sivachenko, supra, 143 Cal.App.2d 146 , upon which Huang principally relies, do not support the proposition that a worker’s injury is presumed to have occurred during his employment. In Greitz, the uninsured employer in a Labor Code section 3706 action appealed from a judgment entered after a jury verdict in the employee’s favor. The Court of Appeal affirmed the judgment, rejecting the employer’s theory at trial and on appeal that the employee “faked his injury,” and that the only injury in the incident in question occurred to another person. (143 Cal.App.2d at p. 149.) Some of the court’s language suggests Labor Code section 3708 placed the burden on the employer to prove that the injury to the employee did not happen. However, in Greitz there was no question that the incident, involving the collapse of a stairway, occurred while the worker was employed repairing the stairs.^[6] The Court of Appeal concluded the employee’s own testimony was sufficient to support a finding he was injured in the manner described in his testimony. (143 Cal.App.2d at p. 149.) Moreover, Greitz had already obtained an award from the Industrial Accident Commission, which found that he was an employee of Sivachenko at the time of the accident and

was injured in the accident, and the award was introduced in evidence. (Ibid.) At most, Greitz suggests that, in a case where an incident unquestionably occurred during the course of employment, under section 3708 the uninsured employer has the burden of proving the employee was not actually injured in the incident. Greitz cannot in any event be interpreted as eliminating the worker’s burden of proving that the alleged accident or injury occurred during the employment.

In summary, the trial court did not misinterpret Labor Code section 3708 or improperly allocate the burden of proof. Huang had the burden of proving by a preponderance of the evidence that she sustained an injury during her employment. If she did so, the employer’s negligence would be presumed under section 3708, and the employer would have to prove it was not negligent to avoid liability. However, the trial court found Huang did not show “that she was injured at Defendants’ premises or in her employment by Defendants.” We are not at liberty to interfere with that conclusion if there is any competent evidence to support it.

The question is reduced to one of witness credibility, which is entirely within the province of the trial court.^[7] Huang gave her account of her injury, and testified she told Hunter about it that same day. Dr. Mitzelfelt testified Huang’s injuries, were consistent with the accident Huang described, but could have been caused by other kinds of trauma. On the other hand, Hunter testified that Huang did not tell him she was injured, either on the day it happened or on the following day when he fired her. He also presented evidence as to the height of the windows, which cast Huang’s account of the alleged accident into considerable question. Under these circumstances, we have no basis upon which to question the trial court’s assessment of the evidence. The court apparently did not believe Huang’s version of events.^[8] In short, the court’s conclusion Huang did not meet her burden of proving she was injured during her employment necessarily means the court, as trier of fact, did not believe Huang’s testimony, and instead credited the employes’s evidence, from which it could be inferred Huang’s story was not true.

Since there was substantial evidence to support that conclusion, we are obliged to affirm the judgment in the employer’s favor.^[9]

Disposition

The judgment is affirmed. Hunter and L.A. Haute are to recover their costs on appeal.

Cooper, P. J., and Rubin, J., concurred.

On February 28, 2003, the opinion was modified to read as printed above.