Employer's Denial of Claim Doesn't Waive Right to Subrogation

A divided Commonwealth Court last week ruled that an employer’s denial of a workers' compensation claim does not forfeit its ability to partake in any recovery that the claimant may obtain from a third party in connection with that accident. In Pennsylvania, an employer’s subrogation right is often described in terms of being “absolute.” The court emphasized that there are only “very narrow circumstances” in which that right can be waived. An employer’s decision to contest whether a worker’s accident occurred in the course an...