Armas: Why Partial-Disability Weeks Counted Toward the 104-Week Limit

When disability checks have been smaller than your usual benefit, a notice saying you have used all 104 weeks can be difficult to understand. You may add up the payments and see much less than 104 times your full weekly rate. In Armas v. Alta Genetics USA, Inc., No. ADJ15636039 (WCAB Jan. 30, 2026), that difference was the worker’s central argument. The Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board panel upheld the denial of additional temporary disability because the governing limit counted paid weeks, including weeks paid at a partial-disability rate.

The distinction affects what you need to check in the payment record. The amount of a weekly check and the number of benefit weeks used answer different questions. Armas explains why a lower dollar total did not establish an unused balance under this 104-week limit.

The worker asked for a dollar balance

Nolberto Armas sustained an October 4, 2020 work injury involving his right foot, right ankle and lumbar spine. He also claimed injuries to other body parts and conditions. The adopted judge’s report identified earnings of $1,120.23 a week and a temporary-total-disability rate of $746.82. The dispute concerned payments made at that rate and periods paid at various temporary-partial-disability rates.

Armas multiplied $746.82 by 104 to reach $77,669.28. His argument, as quoted in the report adopted in Armas, compared that figure with $44,062.39 in aggregate payments and claimed another $33,606.89 remained payable. He accepted that partial-disability payments contributed to the total dollars paid. He disputed whether a week paid at a partial rate used a compensable week under the cap.

The carrier took a different approach. It counted the periods paid as temporary total disability together with those paid as temporary partial disability. It argued that those periods already used the 104 compensable weeks. The judge agreed in the October 21, 2025 findings, and Armas sought reconsideration.

The payment record combined total and partial disability

The evidence summarized in Armas included a benefit printout and a temporary-disability termination notice dated May 21, 2025. The report listed three periods paid at the $746.82 temporary-total rate and two periods paid at various partial-disability rates. It described the combined durations as 104 weeks and two days and found the 104-week limit had been reached.

That account shows why looking only at the checks’ combined dollar value gave a different answer. Some of the covered weeks carried smaller payments. Under the judge’s interpretation, those weeks still counted toward the same weeks-based limit. The payment category changed the amount due for a week; it did not turn the week into unused full-rate dollars.

For your own review, begin with the period each payment covers. A deposit date identifies when money arrived. The benefit printout identifies the disability period and category the carrier charged. Compare those periods with the notice’s explanation of how the limit was reached, particularly where the record changes between total and partial disability.

The statute measured compensable weeks

Labor Code section 4656(c)(2) applies its general limit to a single injury occurring on or after January 1, 2008: Aggregate temporary-disability payments may extend for up to 104 compensable weeks within five years of injury. Armas’s October 2020 injury fell within that provision. The number of compensable weeks and the five-year window are separate parts of the limit.

The textual reasoning adopted in Armas focused on the statute’s use of temporary disability without limiting that term to total disability. The judge contrasted an older subdivision that expressly referred to temporary partial disability. That contrast showed that the Legislature used a narrower description where it intended one.

The payment rules also recognize both categories. Section 4653 addresses temporary total disability, while section 4654 addresses temporary partial disability based on weekly wage loss. Section 4655 directs the corresponding payment rule to apply when a person’s temporary disability is total at some times and partial at others. The adopted report treated each as a form of temporary disability within the weeks-based cap.

The worker challenged the judge’s reading of an earlier case

Armas also argued that the judge had relied incorrectly on Villalobos v. Bright Horizons Family Solutions. According to his argument, the parties there had agreed that 104 weeks had been paid, so the earlier case had not resolved the disputed legal issue. The adopted report’s response in Armas explained that the agreement covered the mix of periods paid as total and partial disability. The legal effect of those partial-disability periods was the question the earlier panel resolved.

The judge explained that his own conclusion rested first on the language of section 4656(c)(2), with the earlier decisions supporting that reading. The statute capped compensable weeks rather than setting a dollar allowance equal to 104 full-rate payments. The Board adopted that reasoning and denied reconsideration in Armas on January 30, 2026. The finding denying additional temporary disability remained in place.

Separate the week count from the weekly rate

If your notice says 104 weeks have been used, compare the total-disability and partial-disability periods together. Identify which claim each period belongs to, the dates covered and the benefit category. Then ask what specific entry or legal premise you dispute. A disagreement about the number of covered weeks calls for different proof from a disagreement about the amount due during a particular week.

For the weekly-rate question, preserve wage records, post-injury earnings and medical work restrictions. Our guide to calculating temporary partial disability explains that calculation. For the cap question illustrated here, preserve the complete benefit printout, the termination notice and any decision fixing the periods payable. Match the covered periods before using a combined dollar total to claim additional weeks.

The applicable injury and benefit category matter too. Section 4656 contains different date-of-injury provisions and specific exceptions, including a longer period for listed injuries or conditions. Our Arellano analysis examines one such exception. A review should identify the provision that actually governs the injury, then test the carrier’s accounting against it.