Workers’ Compensation · Primary-source case analysis

Mayor: The WCAB Could Not Equitably Toll Its Own Reconsideration Deadline

By Aneeta Mishra and Timothy Chan

Published September 17, 2026

Joseph Mayor obtained an award of permanent total disability. Although the employer timely sought reconsideration, the WCAB did not act until 144 days after filing and attributed the delay to an administrative failure that kept the petition from reaching the Board.

Former section 5909 set a mandatory deadline

The statute then in effect deemed a reconsideration petition denied unless the Board acted within 60 days after filing. The deadline constrained the Board even though it was not jurisdictional in the most fundamental sense.

The Board could not toll its own time to act

Equitable tolling ordinarily protects a litigant who diligently pursues a claim. The Court rejected using that doctrine to enlarge an adjudicative agency’s own mandatory decision period because of its internal administrative delay.

A writ of mandate was available

The Court affirmed relief directing the WCAB to rescind its untimely reconsideration order. It also rejected the argument that Mayor’s failure to file a different writ within the workers’ compensation review period barred traditional mandate on this record.

The governing statute has since changed

The opinion construed the former filing-triggered version of section 5909. Current section 5909 measures 60 days from transmission by the trial judge and includes notice provisions, so present deadlines must be calculated from the statute in effect for the petition.

Key takeaways

• Identify which version of section 5909 governs.
• Preserve filing, transmission, report, and service dates.
• Do not assume an agency’s internal delay automatically tolls a mandatory period.
• Select the correct writ and deadline for the order actually challenged.