Federal: Carrier’s Subrogation Claim May Not Be Removed to Federal Court

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals held the issue of whether a workers’ compensation insurance carrier was entitled to subrogation following a settlement between a third party and the insurance beneficiary employee arose under the Texas Workers’ Compensation Act and, therefore, the matter was not removable to federal court pursuant to 28 U.S.C.S. § 1445(c). The court also held the employee’s bad faith claim arose as well under the state’s workers’ compensation law; the Texas Act expressly addressed the duty of good faith and fair dealing and specified the remedy for breach of that duty in Tex. Labor Code Ann. § 416.002.

Thomas A. Robinson, J.D., the Feature National Columnist for the LexisNexis Workers’ Compensation eNewsletter, is a leading commentator and expert on the law of workers’ compensation.

LexisNexis Online Subscribers: Citations below link to Lexis Advance. Bracketed citations link to lexis.com.

See Trahan v. Liberty Mutual Ins. Co., 2014 U.S. App. LEXIS 10775 (5th Cir., June 10, 2014) [2014 U.S. App. LEXIS 10775 (5th Cir., June 10, 2014)]

See generally Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, § 118.01 [118.01]

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

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