Property insurers along all lines could simplify their business practices and lower their overhead considerably by simply paying any and all property damages, claims, expenses, and consequential damages alleged to have been incurred by and in the amounts claimed by their insureds. Obviously, such a practice would be a shortcut to insolvency and would lead…
A recent unpublished and quite puzzling decision from the New Jersey Superior Court, Appellate Division, threw decades of established New Jersey subrogation law into question when it announced that a workers’ compensation carrier has no subrogation/reimbursement rights on the medical portion of a third-party claim against an uninsured/underinsured motorist (UM/UIM) carrier. The Court in Dever…
The Wisconsin Court of Appeals recently had occasion to address the issue of whether “subjective” and/or “objective” intent to cause injury must be found in the context of an intentional act exclusion. In Fetherstone v. Parks, 2014 WI App. 2, the Court interpreted an American Family insurance policy to determine whether a showing of both…
The Wisconsin Supreme Court recently expanded the scope of coverage under auto policies when it held an auto insurer must defend and indemnify a permissive user of the auto who is sued by the named insured. Blasing v. Zurich Amer. Ins. Co., 2014 WI 73, aff’g 2013 WI App 27, 346 Wis.2d 30, 827 N.W.2d…
On July 23, 2014, the Wisconsin Supreme Court decided Data Key Partners v. Permira Advisers LLC, 2014 WI 86. Remarkably, the decision appears to adopt the U.S. Supreme Court’s controversial decision in Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544 (2007). According to the minority opinion, the Court adopted Twombly without it having been briefed…
For nearly twenty years, the plaintiffs’ bar and negligent third parties have been trying to use the Federal Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) as a weapon against legitimate subrogation claims. While the fight continues, two recent federal district court decisions came down in favor of subrogation yet again. Both cases center on a third party’s…
Texas has historically been a very favorable venue for workers’ compensation subrogation. It has not been without its gray areas. In death cases, when an employee dies and either he and/or his surviving family members have received workers’ compensation benefits, a careful analysis is required in order to determine the subrogation and future credit rights…
Trial lawyers are already calling it a “travesty of justice” and I gave two media interviews about its significance within two hours of the decision being published. The truth is, however, the new Wisconsin Supreme Court case which is being decried as allowing a workers’ compensation carrier to “force” an employee to accept a settlement…
Earlier this year, the Arizona Court of Appeals essentially rewrote § 23-1023, Arizona’s workers’ compensation subrogation statute. Prior to its amendment in 2007, this statute provided that the injured employee had only one year after a cause of action accrued to pursue a third-party action. A.R.S. § 23-1023(B). If the employee did not pursue the…
A recent decision by the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals has dramatically expanded a longshore harbor workers’ compensation carrier’s rights of subrogation in Jones Act cases. The Chenevert v. Travelers Indemnity Co., 2014 WL 902873 (5th Cir. 2014) decision declares for the first time that a longshore harbor workers’ compensation carrier has a right of…