Overview

HOLDINGS: [1]-Res judicata did not bar an employer’s defenses to claims for breach of contract, a common count for reasonable value, and open book account in a dispute about workers’ compensation insurance premiums because the amount of premium owed was not at issue in a prior administrative action that addressed only the application of regulations for determining payroll, nor was any determination made as to whether the employer had affirmative defenses to a collection action, and such defenses were not relevant to issues previously addressed in either the administrative proceeding or the courts; [2]-The administrative proceeding gave the employer no opportunity to raise as claims any matters forming its affirmative defenses in the collection action because Ins. Code, §§ 11753.1, 11737, subd. (f), limited administrative consideration of premium calculation disputes to specific matters.

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Outcome

Reversed and remanded.