Stressing that allowing a workers’ compensation insurer to intervene in a third-party civil action filed by an injured worker against the purported tortfeasor would not cause delay and would not necessarily cause confusion among potential jurors... Read More
In a case of first impression, a federal court sitting in Colorado, construing Colorado law, held that an employee injured in a work-related vehicle accident may not recover under his or her employer’s uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage. The... Read More
Where plaintiff, a semi-truck driver for a Pennsylvania corporation, sustained injuries in a vehicular accident in Grundy County, Illinois and eventually settled his Pennsylvania workers’ compensation claim by means of a settlement agreement in... Read More
While the North Carolina Industrial Commission does not have jurisdiction to determine the reasonableness of attorney’s fees in third-party negligence cases involving the rights of an injured worker vis-à-vis the subrogation interests of... Read More
A Delaware court has allowed the employer’s workers’ compensation insurer to intervene in a personal injury action filed by an injured employee against the firm that provided janitorial services to the employer, finding that the insurer has... Read More
Relying upon an earlier decision [(Curry v. Great Am. Ins. Co., 80 Mass. App. Ct. 592 (2011)], a Massachusetts appellate court held that the workers’ compensation insurer’s lien under G. L. c. 152, § 15, does not reach the damages for... Read More
A Missouri appellate court held that the state’s Industrial Relations Commission’s power to order an employee (and his spouse) to repay some $41,000 in medical benefits following the successful settlement of a third-party civil action for... Read More
The Supreme Court of Wisconsin affirmed a decision compelling a plaintiff/injured employee to accept a settlement offered in a third-party civil action he had filed against an alleged tortfeasor. The employee, who worked for the Village of Fontana, had... Read More
Where a surviving spouse of a worker killed in a work-related car accident filed a wrongful death action in a state court and joined a separate federal wrongful death action filed by her son, and the parties eventually settled the claim with the federal... Read More
Where an injured worker (or the worker’s dependents) have accepted workers’ compensation benefits and have further sought to recover over against one or more third parties that are responsible for the worker’s injuries, that worker—or... Read More
Where an injured worker settled a third-party action against an alleged tortfeasor for $800,000, with the workers’ compensation insurer having previously paid some $71,000 in benefits, the worker was entitled to an order approving a settlement of... Read More
CALIFORNIA COMPENSATION CASES Vol. 80 No. 2 February 2015 A Report of En Banc and Significant Panel Decisions of the WCAB and Selected Court Opinions of Related Interest, With a Digest of WCAB Decisions Denied Judicial Review CONTENTS OF THIS... Read More
Where an injured employee never commences a third-party action to recover for injuries arising out of the same incident as his or her workers’ compensation claim, but settles the claim for less than the amount of compensation he or she has received... Read More
A provision in an employment contract that limited an employee’s right to sue a third party for negligence and instead required the injured employee to accept only the benefits that he could recover under the New Jersey Workers’ Compensation... Read More
Under Texas law, consistent with that in the large majority of states, a workers’ compensation carrier has a subrogation interest in a third-party civil action to the extent of its prior payments for benefits and to treat the amount recovered as... Read More