If a contest were held for the worst appellate decision of 2017, we might already have a winner. The recent unpublished Hawai’i Court of Appeals decision in Hawaiian Dredging Constr. Co., Inc. v. Fujikawa Assocs., Inc., 2017 WL 663540 (Haw. App. 2017) turns the very concept of workers’ compensation in the Aloha State upside down,…
Trial lawyers in Nebraska had high hopes that a questionable Court of Appeals decision from early 2016 might reinject the equitable Made Whole Doctrine into Nebraska workers’ compensation subrogation and eliminate any right of the carrier to a future credit whenever the injured employee files and pursues a third-party action. On December 16, 2016, the…
The new American horror film “Split”, directed by M. Night Shyamalan, recently in theaters, is a psychological thriller which centers on a bizarre antagonist with 23 separate personalities. Without spoiling the plot, suffice it to say that it focuses on the fact that there is something to the adage “mind over matter.” They say that…
Heimerman v. Rose, 2017 WL 130123 (Kan. App. 2017) On August 31, 2013, Dan Heimerman was driving in Kansas, while employed by Northern Clearing, Inc., (“Northern”) and was killed when he was rear-ended by a dump truck driven by Zachary Rose and owned by Payless Concrete (“Payless”). His son, Lucas Heimerman, a Florida resident, brought…
It has now been four years since Claims Journal’s online magazine asked Gary Wickert to begin a new monthly column focusing on subrogation and related claims and insurance topics. Gary’s column entitled “The Road To Recovery” can be found HERE. The column was very well-received and continues to provide the claims industry with a very…
The last 40 years have been a roulette wheel of changing opinions and positions for the Idaho Supreme Court with regard to the subrogation and reimbursement rights of an employer or its workers’ compensation carrier when there is employer negligence. However, the white ball representing the latest position of the Idaho Supreme Court with regard…
Injury and workers’ compensation cases involving slips and falls on snow and ice during winter in America’s northern states continue to be a perplexing subrogation puzzle for insurance claims and subrogation professionals. During the winter months, our office sees a flood of cases involving slips and falls on ice, snow, and slush during winter conditions.…
Every year, more than 170 billion cell phone texts are sent and received. Each year, an average of 3,000 people die and 450,000 are injured in motor vehicle accidents involving distracted drivers. Ten percent of all drivers who are 15 to 19 years of age involved in fatal crashes were distracted when the accident occurred.…
Following an election cycle in which illegal immigration became a touchstone issue, it seems only appropriate that claims handlers and subrogation professionals have a clear understanding of the many nuances involving workers’ compensation claims made by undocumented employees. Indeed, with more than 11 million such immigrants living and working in the country according to the…
What we once commonly knew to be true is, well, still true. The Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania (state appellate court which hears appeals from the Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board (W.C.A.B.)) has just issued a decision as to whether an employer’s future credit rights under § 319 of the Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Act extend beyond indemnity…