Mackey v. Johnson, No. 16-1886 (8th Cir. 2017)
Annotate this CaseThe Fund filed suit against defendants under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), 29 U.S.C. 1132(a)(3), alleging that it had a right to a portion of a negligence settlement attributable to medical expenses. The Eighth Circuit affirmed the district court's grant of summary judgment for the Fund, considering defendants' admissions that the settlement agreements included the claim for medical expenses. Therefore, the Fund was entitled to whatever was recovered for medical expenses in the settlement action.
Court Description: Colloton, Author, with Loken and Kelly, Circuit Judges] Civil case - ERISA. While defendant Johnson's settlement agreements with the clinic which treated her decedent are ambiguous as to whether she and the clinic settled a claim for medical expenses, the district court did not err in concluding that the other evidence from her lawsuit against the clinic showed that the settlement agreements did cover the claim for medical expenses; as a result, under the subrogation provisions of the ERISA plan, the Fund is entitled to recover whatever Johnson recovered for the decedent's medical expenses, whether or not Johnson ultimately could have recovered the expenses at trial.
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