Employer Qualifies as 3rd Party for Purposes of BWC Subrogation Claim

An Ohio appellate court this week ruled that the state Bureau of Workers’ Compensation can intervene in a worker’s intentional tort claim against his employer to assert its subrogation rights. While R.C. 4123.931 provides that the bureau’s statutory right of recovery is “against a third party,” the Court of Appeals for the 5th District of Ohio reasoned that an employer qualifies as a “third party” for subrogation purposes because R.C. 4123.93(C) defines a “third party” as a “private entity” that is, or that may be, “liabl...