How has section 3856 of the California Labor Code been interpreted in the context of attorney fees?

In Quinn v. State of California (1975) 15 Cal.3d 162, 124 Cal.Rptr. 1, 539 P.2d 761, we construed Labor Code section 3856 differently. In the opinion of the court, in which I concurred, Justice Tobriner, over a dissent by Justice Clark, interpreted the provision to state that the attorney or attorneys who prosecuted the action against the third party responsible for the employee's injury must obtain reasonable attorney fees out of the employer's share and/or the employee's share of the judgment proceeds by "equitable apportionment," and not out of the judgment proceeds themselves, except in the case in which the employer and the employee each had a separate attorney or attorneys.