Can an employer recover workers' compensation from an injured employee?

California's Workers' Compensation Act ( Labor Code, 3600 et seq. ) provides an employee's exclusive remedy against his or her employer for injuries arising out of and in the course of employment. Specifically, Labor Code section 3600, subdivision (a), states: "Liability for the compensation provided by this division, in lieu of any other liability whatsoever to any person ..., shall, without regard to negligence, exist against an employer for any injury sustained by his or her employees arising out of and in the course of the employment...." (See Vaught, supra, 157 Cal.App.4th at p. 1543, 69 Cal.Rptr.3d 605 ["Subject to [certain] statutory exceptions not applicable here, an injured employee's sole and exclusive remedy against his or her employer is the right to recover workers' compensation benefits ...," provided the injury arose out of and in the course of employment].) The phrase "arising out of" refers to the origin or cause of the injury, while the phrase "in the course of employment" refers to the time and place of the injury. ( State Compensation Ins. Fund v. Industrial Acc. Com. (1952) 38 Cal.2d 659, 661, 242 P.2d 311 ;

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