Grothe v. Kushnivich, 521 P.3d 228 (Wash. App. 2022) One by one, states have begun to recognize a vehicle owner’s third-party claim for residual diminished value damage, or “stigma damage”, which is the loss of value of an automobile that remains after it is completely and professionally repaired. It is the loss of value that…
“It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog.” — Mark Twain One insurance company – State Farm – has referred to dog bites as a “serious public health problem.” In 2018 alone, one carrier paid $90 million in claims on roughly 3,500 dog bite incidents. According…
4.07[10] Made Whole Doctrine Until recently, the Made Whole Doctrine had not been applied outside the context of a bankruptcy proceeding in Connecticut.[1] However, the Connecticut Supreme Court has given us a clue as to how it will treat this issue in the future. It has ruled that while a right of true contractual subrogation…
A huge segment of America’s service economy involves flexible, temporary, part-time, or freelance jobs—frequently involving professional employer organizations (PEO’s) or employee leasing companies. The “gig economy” is the labor market that relies on temporary and part-time positions filled by independent contractors, leased employees, and freelancers, rather than full-time permanent employees. Threading the needle of workers’…
Amy Alexander, et al. v. Nam Duong and Sentinel Insurance Company, Case No. 120,320 (Okla. App. December 2, 2022) Oklahoma’s workers’ compensation laws have endured a long and tortured constitutional tug-of-war between trial lawyers and business advocates/subrogation professionals. In 2011, Oklahoma completely overhauled its workers’ compensation laws, entitling the new legislation the “Workers’ Compensation Code.”[1]…
What you don’t know can’t help you. That is certainly the case in Iowa when plaintiff’s attorneys claim no obligation to reimburse a carrier exists based on a general assertion that the insured was not made whole. This objection overlooks the proper application of the made-whole doctrine to specific damage types as required under Iowa…
Davis v. Adeoye, 2022 WL 16570653 (Conn. Super. 2022) For years, trial lawyers have been threatening and filing class action lawsuits in multiple states in an effort to thwart their arch nemesis—subrogation. States such as Montana have gone so far as to hold that it is the burden of the subrogated insurance company to determine…
Hartford Underwriters Ins. Co. v. Allstate Ins. Co., 2022 WL 17491301 (Va. 2022) When two insurance companies or an insurance company and an employer (self-insured for workers’ compensation) enter into Arbitration Forum’s “Special Arbitration Agreement”, the workers’ compensation carrier may proceed in binding arbitration under Arbitration Forum’s Special Arbitration Forum to seek reimbursement and subrogation…
Insurance subrogation professionals are routinely faced with minimum limits scenarios which complicate otherwise straightforward subrogation cases. When a third-party liability carrier’s insurance limits are insufficient to pay the claims of multiple claimants, the carrier must begin to assess the hierarchy of the claimants – how to slice the insured’s pie. In order to do this,…
Sheckler v. Auto-Owners Ins. Co., 2022 WL 17245548 (Ill. 2022). The ability of a landlord’s property insurer to subrogate against a tenant for property damage caused by the negligence of the tenant varies greatly from state to state and often hinges on the specific language of the lease involved. There are generally three different approaches:…