NEWS / Legal News - January 2020

Potential intervenors must timely intervene or their claims will be extinguished

Koehnen v. Flagship Marine Co.

Intervention Claims

An employee, employer and insurer entered into a workers’ compensation settlement which extinguished potential intervenors for failure to timely intervene after receiving proper notice of their intervention rights.

Following the settlement, one of the potential intervenors filed a claim for payment. The employee, employer, and insurer moved to dismiss the intervention claim on the basis that it was barred under the previous stipulation, and their motion was granted.

The potential intervenor appealed.

The WCCA affirmed noting that the statute is clear that potential intervenors must timely intervene or their claims will be extinguished. The potential intervenor’s arguments that it could bring a direct claim were rejected, and the WCCA stated that it did not have authority to address the constitutional arguments raised.

GOING FORWARD
This case is on appeal to the Supreme Court, so watch for more developments in the future should the Supreme Court decide to address this issue.

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