Oklahoma: Civil Action Against Comp Insurer Barred by Exclusive Remedy Rule

Plaintiff’s civil action against a workers’ compensation insurance insurer alleging that it failed to timely provide reasonable and necessary medical treatment, as ordered by the Workers’ Compensation Court, was appropriately dismissed by an Oklahoma trial court under the exclusive remedy provisions of the state’s Workers’ Compensation Act, held the Supreme Court of Oklahoma. The Court observed that plaintiff's civil action alleging breach of the insurance contract also included a request for damages resulting from the death of the workers' compensation claimant. The civil action was also based upon alleged delay by the insurer in providing medical care as previously awarded by the Worker's Compensation Court. As such, the civil action against the insurer was precluded by an exclusive remedy provided by the Act.

Thomas A. Robinson, J.D., the Feature National Columnist for the LexisNexis Workers’ Compensation eNewsletter, is the co-author of Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law (LexisNexis).

LexisNexis Online Subscribers: Citations below link to Lexis Advance.

See Gaasch v. St. Paul Fire & Marine Ins. Co., 2018 OK 12, 2018 Okla. LEXIS 13 (Feb. 6, 2018)

See generally Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, § 114.02.

Source: Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, the nation’s leading authority on workers’ compensation law