Ohio: $15,000 Settlement of Third-Party Claim Costs Injured Employee $61,500

Applying Ohio Rev. Code 4123.931(G), which provides in relevant part that if the injured employee settles with the third party without giving such notice, the employee and the third party are jointly and severally liable to pay the employer or carrier the full amount of the subrogation interest, an Ohio appellate court recently affirmed a trial court’s summary judgment order favoring an employer/self-insurer in the amount of $61,527.42, in spite of the fact that the amount the employee received from the third party under the settlement agreement was only for $15,000.  Discounting the employee’s argument that the result was not “equitable,” the court indicated that equitable defenses were unavailable to the employee in the face of the clear wording of the statute.

Reported by Thomas A. Robinson, J.D.

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See Rivers v. Otis Elevator, 2013-Ohio–3917, 2013 Ohio App. LEXIS 4080 (Sept. 12, 2013) [2013 Ohio App. LEXIS 4080 (Sept. 12, 2013)]

See generally Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, § 117.01 [117.01]

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

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