Opinion ID: 1441972
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Consideration of Physical Injury Allegations

Text: (2) Preliminarily, we note that plaintiff has evidently abandoned his contention, raised before the Court of Appeal, that he was entitled to rely on the third amended complaint, omitting the original allegations of physical injury. The general rule, as the Court of Appeal noted, is that material factual allegations in a verified pleading that are omitted in a subsequent amended pleading without adequate explanation will be considered by the court in ruling on a demurrer to the later pleading. ( Lamoreux v. San Diego etc. Ry. Co. (1957) 48 Cal.2d 617, 623 [311 P.2d 1].) Plaintiff's reliance on McGee v. McNally, supra, 119 Cal. App.3d 891, was misplaced, as the allegations of physical injury included in plaintiff's first amended complaint went far beyond the lightly traced allegations in McGee; plaintiff here actually alleged that his injuries caused him to lose time from work and that he believed he would suffer some permanent disability. The Court of Appeal correctly concluded that the sufficiency of plaintiff's third amended complaint must be tested taking into consideration the allegations of physical injury from the first amended complaint. (See Lamoreux v. San Diego etc. Ry. Co., supra, 48 Cal.2d 617, 623.) The Court of Appeal, in reliance on Cole v. Fair Oaks Fire Protection Dist., supra, 43 Cal.3d 148, reasoned that, because the allegations of physical injury were so substantial, all plaintiff's causes of action (except the civil rights cause of action) were barred by the workers' compensation exclusivity provisions. In so holding, however, the Court of Appeal failed to consider the full implications of our opinion in Cole, and incorrectly analyzed the various causes of action pled in plaintiff's third amended complaint. A determination whether a cause of action is barred by the exclusive remedy provisions of the workers' compensation law must take into account not only the facts alleged (i.e., of physical injury) but also their relation to the scope and purposes of the workers' compensation statutory scheme.