3716
. (a) If the employer fails to pay the compensation required by
Section 3715 to the person entitled thereto, or fails to furnish the
bond required by Section 3715 within a period of 10 days after
notification of the award, the award, upon application by the person
entitled thereto, shall be paid by the director from the Uninsured
Employers Benefits Trust Fund. The expenses of the director in
administering these provisions, directly or by contract pursuant to
Section 3716.1, shall be paid from the Workers' Compensation
Administration Revolving Fund. Refunds may be paid from the Uninsured
Employers Benefits Trust Fund for amounts remitted erroneously to
the fund, or the director may authorize offsetting subsequent
remittances to the fund.
(b) It is the intent of the Legislature that the Uninsured
Employers Benefits Trust Fund is created to ensure that workers who
happen to be employed by illegally uninsured employers are not
deprived of workers' compensation benefits, and is not created as a
source of contribution to insurance carriers, or self-insured, or
legally insured employers. The Uninsured Employers Benefits Trust
Fund has no liability for claims of occupational disease or
cumulative injury unless no employer during the period of the
occupational disease or cumulative injury during which liability is
imposed under Section 5500.5 was insured for workers' compensation,
was permissibly self-insured, or was legally uninsured. No employer
has a right of contribution against the Uninsured Employers Benefits
Trust Fund for the liability of an illegally uninsured employer under
an award of benefits for occupational disease or cumulative injury,
nor may an employee in a claim of occupational disease or cumulative
injury elect to proceed against an illegally uninsured employer.
(c) The Uninsured Employers Benefits Trust Fund has no liability
to pay for medical, surgical, chiropractic, hospital, or other
treatment, the liability for which treatment is imposed upon the
employer pursuant to Section 4600, and which treatment has been
provided or paid for by the State Department of Health Services
pursuant to the California Medical Assistance Program.
(d) The Uninsured Employers Benefits Trust Fund shall have no
liability to pay compensation, nor shall it be joined in any appeals
board proceeding, unless the employer alleged to be illegally
uninsured shall first either have made a general appearance or have
been served with the application specified in Section 3715 and with a
special notice of lawsuit issued by the appeals board. The special
notice of lawsuit shall be in a form to be prescribed by the appeals
board, and it shall contain at least the information and warnings
required by the Code of Civil Procedure to be contained in the
summons issued in a civil action. The special notice of lawsuit shall
also contain a notice that if the appeals board makes an award
against the defendant that his or her house or other dwelling and
other property may be taken to satisfy the award in a nonjudicial
sale, with no exemptions from execution. The special notice of
lawsuit shall, in addition, contain a notice that a lien may be
imposed upon the defendant's property without further hearing and
before the issuance of an award. The applicant shall identify a legal
person or entity as the employer named in the special notice of
lawsuit. The reasonable expense of serving the application and
special notice of lawsuit, when incurred by the employee, shall be
awarded as a cost. Proof of service of the special notice of lawsuit
and application shall be filed with the appeals board.
(1) The application and special notice of lawsuit may be served,
within or without this state, in the manner provided for service of
summons in the Code of Civil Procedure. Thereafter, an employer,
alleged to be illegally uninsured, shall notify the appeals board of
the address at which it may be served with official notices and
papers, and shall notify the appeals board of any changes in the
address. No findings, order, decision, award, or other notice or
paper need be served in this manner on an employer, alleged to be
illegally uninsured, who has been served as provided in this section,
and who has not filed an answer, otherwise made a general
appearance, or furnished the appeals board with its address. The
findings, orders, decisions, awards, or other notice or paper may be
mailed to the employer as the board, by regulation, may provide.
(2) Notwithstanding paragraph (1), if the employer alleged to be
illegally uninsured has not filed an answer, otherwise made a general
appearance, or furnished the appeals board with its address, the
appeals board shall serve any findings, order, decision, award, or
other notice or paper on the employer by mail at the address the
appeals board has for the employer. The failure of delivery at that
address or the lack of personal service on an employer who has been
served as provided in this section, of these findings, order,
decision, award, or other notice or paper, shall not constitute
grounds for reopening or invalidating any appeals board action
pursuant to Section 5506, or for contesting the validity of any
judgment obtained under Section 3716 or 5806, a lien under Section
3720, or a settlement under subdivision (e) of Section 3715.
(3) The board, by regulation, may provide for service procedures
in cases where a request for new and further benefits is made after
the issuance of any findings and award and a substantial period of
time has passed since the first service or attempted service.
(4) The director, on behalf of the Uninsured Employers Benefits
Trust Fund, shall furnish information as to the identities, legal
capacities, and addresses of uninsured employers known to the
director upon request of the board or upon a showing of good cause by
the employee or the employee's representative. Good cause shall
include a declaration by the employee's representative, filed under
penalty of perjury, that the information is necessary to represent
the employee in proceedings under this division.