Justia Insurance Law Opinion Summaries

Two former police officers, Mark Zukowski and Joshua Ruggiero, were injured in the line of duty and subsequently awarded both accidental disability retirement (ADR) benefits and workers' compensation benefits under Maryland's Workers' Compensation Act. The ADR benefits exceeded the workers' compensation benefits, resulting in an offset that left the officers with only a small portion of the workers' compensation benefits. The officers' attorney sought fees based on the total workers' compensation award before the offset was applied.The Maryland Workers' Compensation Commission awarded attorney's fees based on the reduced amount of workers' compensation benefits after applying the statutory offset. The Circuit Court for Anne Arundel County affirmed the Commission's decision, holding that attorney's fees should be calculated after the offset.The Supreme Court of Maryland reviewed the case and affirmed the lower courts' decisions. The Court held that the terms "benefits" and "compensation" are interchangeable in this context, meaning that attorney's fees should be calculated based on the amount of compensation actually payable to the claimant after applying the statutory offset. The Court emphasized that the attorney's fees are a lien on the compensation awarded, which is defined as the money payable to the injured employee. Therefore, the offset must be applied before calculating the attorney's fees. The Court also rejected the argument that this interpretation was unconstitutional, stating that the attorney voluntarily agreed to the fee arrangement and was aware of the statutory provisions governing attorney's fees. View "Zukowski v. Anne Arundel Cnty." on Justia Law

A commercial tenant and landlord entered into a contract for the construction and lease of a warehouse, with the landlord also acting as the general contractor. The contract included a waiver of subrogation, where both parties waived subrogation against each other for certain losses, including those caused by their subcontractors. After the warehouse sustained weather damage, the tenant’s insurer sought to recoup insurance payments by suing the subcontractors.The Circuit Court for Baltimore City granted summary judgment in favor of the subcontractors, concluding that they were intended beneficiaries of the waiver of subrogation in the contract between the tenant and landlord. The court did not consider any extrinsic evidence regarding the parties' intent. The Appellate Court of Maryland reversed this decision, finding that the waiver of subrogation in the contract did not unambiguously benefit the subcontractors and that the subcontractors were not intended third-party beneficiaries.The Supreme Court of Maryland reviewed the case and held that the waiver of subrogation in the contract between the tenant and landlord did not extend to the subcontractors. The court found that the language of the waiver was unambiguous and did not show an intent to benefit the subcontractors. However, the court found that the waiver of subrogation included in the subcontracts was ambiguous regarding whether it applied to the tenant’s insurer’s claims against the subcontractors. Therefore, the court held that extrinsic evidence was needed to determine the parties' intent regarding the scope of the subrogation waiver in the subcontracts.The Supreme Court of Maryland affirmed the Appellate Court's decision, reversing the Circuit Court's summary judgment in favor of the subcontractors, and remanded the case for further proceedings to consider extrinsic evidence. View "Lithko Contracting v. XL Insurance America, Inc." on Justia Law