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Thomas v. Lincoln Public Schools2/20/2001
1. Workers' Compensation. Benefits derived from any source other than those paid or caused to be paid by an employer are not considered in fixing workers' compensation under Neb. Rev. Stat. § 48-130 (Reissue 1998).
2. Workers' Compensation: Limitations of Actions: Insurance: Intent: Liability. An employer's payment of wages or reimbursement of medical expenses under an employee benefit plan or group health insurance agreement does not constitute remuneration in lieu of workers' compensation benefits that tolls the statute of limitations unless the employer's conduct creates the reasonable inference that the employer intended the payment as compensation and the employer consciously recognized its liability for compensation benefits.
3. Workers' Compensation: Subrogation: Tort-feasors. An employer's exercise of its statutory right to pursue its subrogation claim against a tort-feasor who injured its employee is not causing the payment of workers' compensation under Neb. Rev. Stat. § 48-130 (Reissue 1998).
4. Workers' Compensation: Actions: Courts. In workers' compensation cases, disputes arising in the course of joint prosecution of a third-party action are resolved by the district court before which the case is pending.
5. Contracts. The unconditional acceptance of an offer forms a binding contract.
6. Workers' Compensation: Tort-feasors: Subrogation. Neb. Rev. Stat. § 48-118 (Reissue 1998) provides that any recovery against a third-party tort-feasor after payment of the expenses of recovery and the employer's subrogation interest shall be treated as an advance payment by the employer, on account of future installments of workers' compensation.
7. Workers' Compensation: Limitations of Actions. The rule that the statute of limitations runs to bar recovery if 2 years pass after exhaustion of the advance payment without payment of benefits or institution of suit against the employer for additional workers' compensation benefits extends to cases involving less than lifetime awards.
8. Workers' Compensation: Liability: Words and Phrases. Compensation is not defined in the Nebraska Workers' Compensation Act; it is a chameleonlike expression taking its meaning from the context in which the word is used in the statute. A guideline for interpreting the word is that the furnishing of any kind of benefit required by compensation law indicates acceptance of liability that satisfies the "last payment" clause.
9. Workers' Compensation: Limitations of Actions. A third-party settlement is deemed compensation under Neb. Rev. Stat. § 48-137 (Reissue 1998).
10. ____: ____. A voluntary payment made by a workers' compensation insurer after the statute of limitations has run does not remove the bar of the statute of limitations.
11. ____: ____. In workers' compensation cases, an advance payment by an employer would not remove the bar of a statute of limitations which had already run at the time of the payment from a third-party lawsuit.
12. Workers' Compensation: Limitations of Actions: Tort-feasors. The statute of limitations bars further suit against an employer if 2 years pass without a payment of workers' compensation from the employer, including by way of an advance payment from a third-party suit against a tort-feasor before the 2-year statute runs, by direct payment by the employer or its insurer, or by a payment caused to be made by the employer.
Appeal from the Nebraska Workers' Compensation Court.
Affirmed.
BACKGROUND
On November 25, 1991, Gloria Thomas was injured in an automobile accident within the course and scope
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