Court Opinion

ID: 9763188
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 02:38:23.865354+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:29:39.926285
License: Public Domain

STEIN, J.,
concurring.
I agree with the Court’s disposition of this appeal but not with its reliance on Midland Insurance Co. v. Colatrella, 102 N.J. 612, 510 A.2d 30 (1986). The Court correctly concludes that for purposes of the workers’ compensation lien authorized by N.J.S.A. 34:15A0, an employee’s malpractice recovery from the lawyer that negligently failed to prosecute the employee’s third-party action should be subjected to the lien to the same extent as the employee’s recovery from the third party would have been. As the Court observes, “[n]o apparent justification exists for allowing an injured employee who receives a legal malpractice recovery to be in a *609better position than an injured employee who recovers directly from the tortfeasor.” Ante at 601-02, 667 A.2d at 676.
The same irrefutable logic cannot apply to enforcement of the lien against the employee’s recovery from his or her own automobile policy, the source of that recovery being an insurance policy paid for by the employee, and the amount of uninsured motorist benefits — and hence the amount of the lien — depending entirely on how much uninsured motorist coverage the employee elected to buy. Recognition of the compensation lien in that circumstance may prevent a so-called “double recovery,” but in the process it permits the compensation carrier to pick the pocket of the employee who paid for the uninsured motorist coverage. As I observed in Midland, supra, 102 N.J. at 622, 510 A.2d 30 (Stein, J., dissenting), if the lien authorized by N.J.S.A. 34:15-40 is to apply to an employee’s recovery of uninsured motorist benefits from his or her own policy, the Legislature should make that determination explicitly.
O’HERN and STEIN, JJ., concur in the result.
For affirmance and remandment — Chief Justice WILENTZ and Justices HANDLER, POLLOCK, GARIBALDI and COLEMAN — 5.
Opposed — None.