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Accosif v. American States Insurance Co.3/21/2000
ON CERTIORARI TO THE COURT OF CIVIL APPEALS, DIV. IV.
A statute-based claim by the workers' compensation carrier, ACCOSIF, against a claimant/employee, a third-party tortfeasor and the latter's insurer, brought in the District Court, Texas County, Greg Zigler, trial judge, was terminated by dismissal. Treating the action as one for subrogation, the court declared it to be time-barred. The workers' compensation carrier appealed. The Court of Civil Appeals reversed the nisi prius dismissal and remanded the cause for further proceedings. On certiorari previously granted upon the petitions by the claimant, by the third-party tortfeasor and by the latter's insurer,
THE COURT OF CIVIL APPEALS' OPINION IS VACATED; THE TRIAL COURT'S DISMISSAL ORDER IS REVERSED AND THE CAUSE IS REMANDED FOR FURTHER PROCEEDINGS TO BE CONSISTENT WITH THIS PRONOUNCEMENT
The dispositive issue tendered for corrective relief on certiorari is whether the workers' compensation carrier's statute-based district court claim was erroneously dismissed as a time-barred action. We answer in the affirmative.
I.
ANATOMY OF LITIGATION
This is an action by the workers' compensation carrier, Association of County Commissioners of Oklahoma State Insurance Fund (ACCOSIF), against the claimant, Jim Hagelberg (Hagelberg), the third-party tortfeasor, Guymon Glass (tortfeasor), and the latter's insurer, American States Insurance Company (tortfeasor's insurer, ASIC). Invoking the provisions of 85 O.S.1991 § 44(a), ACCOSIF seeks to recover a portion of the amount paid to Hagelberg in an earlier compensation claim's settlement. As against Hagelberg ACCOSIF advances the theory of statutory pro tanto recoupment; against the tortfeasor's insurer ACCOSIF appears to press a claim under § 44(a) for a wrongful payout made in breach of duty to a known statutory assignee of a chose in action, whose theoretical underpinnings are somewhat akin to those advanced in Shebester v. Triple Crown Insurers and in a trilogy of attorney's lien cases. As for the tortfeasor, we are at a loss to divine from the record what theory of liability is being pressed against that party. We leave that issue unresolved. It is to be dealt with at nisi prius after remand.
Antecedent Litigation
Hagelberg, a state employee, sustained on 3 March 1992 an on-the-job-injury in a vehicular accident with an employee of the tortfeasor. He sought workers' compensation benefits. Two days before the two-year statute would have expired, Hagelberg (claimant) sued the actor in a common-law tort action. ACCOSIF, the employer's carrier, had paid Hagelberg $26,534.59 in workers' compensation benefits.
Nearly two years following ACCOSIF's discharge of its compensation liability, the claimant's tort action came to be terminated by settlement. By its terms the tortfeasor's insurer paid Hagelberg the sum of $42,500.00. This action by ACCOSIF was brought on 6 October 1997, just over one year after ACCOSIF alleges to have learned of this settlement.
History of Present Litigation
Declaring it time-barred as a subrogation claim, the trial court dismissed ACCOSIF's action on defendants' motion. The Court of Civil Appeals (COCA) reversed the nisi prius dismissal and remanded the cause, holding that the statute of limitations to be applied to this action began to run when the injured party, whose claim was paid by the tortfeasor, refused to "reimburse" the workers' compensation insurer.
Although we agree with COCA's conclusion that the trial court's dismissal order cannot stand, we granted certiorari to provide precedential guidance on a novel point of la
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