Guerra v. WCAB
Annotate this CaseCarlos Ivan Rodas, who worked as a dishwasher at Guido’s, died from a pulmonary hemorrhage while taking out the garbage at work. Rodas’s arteries were prone to bleed because of lesions caused by tuberculosis. Dr. Zlotolow, board certified in internal medicine, was retained by Rodas’s family to opine on the cause of Rodas’s death. Dr. Zlotolow opined that either coughing, brought about by refuse odors, or lifting the garbage caused the bleeding. The WCAB rejected Dr. Zlotolow’s opinion as speculative and ruled that it had not been shown that Rodas’s death arose out of and in the course of his employment. The court granted Rodas’s petition for a writ of review because the inferences Dr. Zlotolow drew were reasonable and therefore probative circumstantial evidence. The court annuled the appeals board’s decision, concluded that the death arose out of and in the course of employment, and remanded the case with directions to conduct further proceedings
Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.