New Mexico: Employer May Not Sue Third Party for Increased Comp Premiums and Other Collateral Damages

While a business entity’s injured employees might state a claim against third parties for their physical injuries allegedly caused by those third parties’ negligence, the business entity itself, which has suffered neither a physical injury nor property damage, may not maintain a civil action against the third parties for collateral or resulting harm—increased premiums, an increased ratings modifier, and lost profits resulting from unsuccessful bids on new jobs—based on its status as employer of those injured, and on its commercial relationships with existing and potential customers and with its workers’ compensation insurance carrier, held a New Mexico appellate court. Noting that for various reasons, and without exception, other jurisdictions had uniformly rejected the precise claims advanced by the plaintiff-employer, the court based its ruling on the basic ground that recovery was prohibited by public policy considerations.

Thomas A. Robinson, J.D., the Feature National Columnist for the LexisNexis Workers’ Compensation eNewsletter, is the co-author of Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law (LexisNexis).

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

See National Roofing, Inc. v. Alstate Steel, Inc., 2015 N.M. App. LEXIS 124 (Dec. 7, 2015) [2015 N.M. App. LEXIS 124 (Dec. 7, 2015)]

See generally Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, § 122.03 [122.03]

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

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