Delaware: Affiliation Between Insurance Companies Is Insufficient to Block Insurer’s Right to Join in Third-Party Action

A Delaware court has allowed the employer’s workers’ compensation insurer to intervene in a personal injury action filed by an injured employee against the firm that provided janitorial services to the employer, finding that the insurer has a subrogation interest in any recovery by the injured employee to the extent of the workers’ compensation outlay of benefits.  The court acknowledged that the employer’s workers’ compensation insurer was “affiliated” with the liability insurer of the janitorial service, but indicated there was no hint that the relationship would work to the disadvantage of the injured employee.  “Unrealized fears of future harm are not a substitute for the demonstration of inequity required to supersede [the insurer’s] statutory right of subrogation,” stated the court.

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 Mitchell v. Ems, Inc., 2014 Del. Super. LEXIS 357 (July 16, 2014) [2014 Del. Super. LEXIS 357 (July 16, 2014)]

See generally Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, § 116.06 [116.06]

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

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