State News : Texas

NWCDN is a network of law firms dedicated to protecting employers in workers’ compensation claims.


NWCDN Members regularly post articles and summary judgements in workers’ compensations law in your state.  


Select a state from the dropdown menu below to scroll through the state specific archives for updates and opinions on various workers’ compensation laws in your state.


Contact information for NWCDN members is also located on the state specific links in the event you have additional questions or your company is seeking a workers’ compensation lawyer in your state.


Texas

STONE LOUGHLIN & SWANSON, LLP

  512-343-1385

The law has been settled for years that a waiver of subrogation endorsement contained in many insurance policies effects a waiver of a workers’ compensation carrier’s right to get reimbursement from 3rd party settlement funds for workers’ compensation benefits paid to an injured worker. But in a recent decision, the Texas Supreme Court shot down a workers’ compensation insurance carrier’s argument that a waiver of subrogation applies only to direct recovery against the liable 3rd party, and not to an indirect recovery from the settlement proceeds paid by that party to the injured worker. The Court explained that when the carrier, by way of the endorsement, signed away its right to recover benefits it paid to the employee in exchange for receiving a higher premium to cover the  assumption of the risk, it cannot also try to recover indirectly the same proceeds it agreed not to pursue directly. Put in other words, the Court admonished that “[the Carrier] sought the same money through the back door that it could not get through the front.”  Wausau Underwriters Ins. Co. v. James Wedel and Michelle Wedel, Texas Supreme Court No. 17-0462, Opinion Delivered June 8, 2018.

-  Copyright 2018, Jane Lipscomb StoneStone Loughlin & Swanson, LLP