California Labor Code

§ 3715

LAB § 3715Div. 4 · Part 1 · Ch. 4 · Art. 2

Statute text

(a)Any employee, except an employee as defined in subdivision (d) of Section 3351, whose employer has failed to secure the payment of compensation as required by this division, or his or her dependents in case death has ensued, may, in addition to proceeding against his or her employer by civil action in the courts as provided in Section 3706, file his or her application with the appeals board for compensation and the appeals board shall hear and determine the application for compensation in like manner as in other claims and shall make the award to the claimant as he or she would be entitled to receive if the employer had secured the payment of compensation as required, and the employer shall pay the award in the manner and amount fixed thereby or shall furnish to the appeals board a bond, in any amount and with any sureties as the appeals board requires, to pay the employee the award in the manner and amount fixed thereby.

(b)Notwithstanding this section or any other provision of this chapter except Section 3708, any person described in subdivision (d) of Section 3351 who is (1) engaged in household domestic service who is employed by one employer for over 52 hours per week, (2) engaged as a part-time gardener in connection with a private dwelling, if the number of hours devoted to the gardening work for any individual regularly exceeds 44 hours per month, or (3) engaged in casual employment where the work contemplated is to be completed in not less than 10 working days, without regard to the number of persons employed, and where the total labor cost of the work is not less than one hundred dollars ($100) (which amount shall not include charges other than for personal services), shall be entitled, in addition to proceeding against his or her employer by civil action in the courts as provided in Section 3706, to file his or her application with the appeals board for compensation. The appeals board shall hear and determine the application for compensation in like manner as in other claims, and shall make the award to the claimant as he or she would be entitled to receive if the person’s employer had secured the payment of compensation as required, and the employer shall pay the award in the manner and amount fixed thereby, or shall furnish to the appeals board a bond, in any amount and with any sureties as the appeals board requires, to pay the employee the award in the manner and amount fixed thereby. It is the intent of the Legislature that the amendments to this section by Chapter 17 of the Statutes of 1977, make no change in the law as it applied to those types of employees covered by this subdivision prior to the effective date of Chapter 1263 of the 1975 Regular Session.

(c)In any claim in which it is alleged that the employer has failed to secure the payment of compensation, the director, only for purposes of this section and Section 3720, shall determine, on the basis of the evidence available to him or her, whether the employer was prima facie illegally uninsured. A finding that the employer was prima facie illegally uninsured shall be made when the director determines that there is sufficient evidence to constitute a prima facie case that the employer employed an employee on the date of the alleged injury and had failed to secure the payment of compensation, and that the employee was injured arising out of, and occurring in the course of, the employment. Failure of the employer to furnish within 10 days the written statement in response to a written demand for a written statement prescribed in Section 3711, addressed to the employer at its address as shown on the official address record of the appeals board, shall constitute in itself sufficient evidence for a prima facie case that the employer failed to secure the payment of compensation. A written denial by the insurer named in the statement furnished by the employer as prescribed in Section 3711, that the employer was so insured as claimed, or the nonexistence of a valid certificate of consent to self-insure for the time of the claimed injury, if the statement furnished by the employer claims the employer was self-insured, shall constitute in itself sufficient evidence for a prima facie case that the employer had failed to secure the payment of compensation. The nonexistence of a record of the employer’s insurance with the Workers’ Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau shall constitute in itself sufficient evidence for a prima facie case that the employer failed to secure the payment of compensation. The unrebutted written declaration under penalty of perjury by the injured employee, or applicant other than the employee, that the employee was employed by the employer at the time of the injury, and that he or she was injured in the course of his or her employment, shall constitute, in itself, sufficient evidence for a prima facie case that the employer employed the employee at the time of the injury, and that the employee was injured arising out of, and occurring in the course of, the employment.

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Legislative history

Amended by Stats. 1989, Ch. 461, Sec. 1.