Effective auto property subrogation may seem simple, but it often requires a thorough understanding of some of the more confusing legal terms known to American civil jurisprudence. When the owner of a vehicle entrusts his or her vehicle to a permissive user who is then involved in an accident which results in damages to the…
A long-standing controversy has been resolved and a major anti-subrogation obstacle in Pennsylvania has been overcome. The proverbial light bulb has gone on in the Quaker State. The ongoing debate in Pennsylvania over whether a workers’ compensation carrier can initiate the filing of a third-party lawsuit is finally over. The answer is “yes” and we…
Serrano v. Workers’ Comp. Appeal Bd. (Ametek, Inc.), 2017 WL 563317 (Pa. Comm. 2017). On March 6, 2006, a container of metal powders, with which Serrano was working, exploded, severely burning him. Serrano sued Aramark Uniform and Career Apparel, Inc. (Aramark), which had provided the flame-resistant coveralls Serrano had been wearing at the time of…
The use of expert witnesses has become an integral and indispensable aspect of American litigation, and it is often the side with the best expert who wins the day. The same holds true for subrogation files in which the subrogated carrier must invest in an expert to assist in meeting the plaintiff’s burden of proof.…
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 The recent unpublished Hawai’i Court of Appeals decision in Hawaiian Dredging Constr.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…