Court Opinion

ID: 9486180
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 11:40:23.626595+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:51:34.264592
License: Public Domain

HEANEY, Senior Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
Perhaps the simplest view of this case is presented in a letter sent to Commercial Union by Aetna several months after the settlement was reached in the Jones Act litigation. After first detailing the payments Aetna had made to Mr. McKinnon for claims under Missouri’s workers compensation law, Aetna’s claims manager explained that “[r]e-imbursement of those benefits should have been made at the time Commercial Union settled Mr. McKinnon’s Jones Act case.” Letter from Aetna to Commercial Union of Sept. 5, 1990, at 1. The letter continued to state that “because Commercial Union Insurance Company failed to protect this interest [of Aetna’s], it is now fully responsible for reimbursement.” Id.
I could not agree more. Commercial Union’s failure to address this issue when it settled the Jones Act litigation left the onus on Commercial Union. Aetna was aware of the Jones Act litigation and the McKinnons had agreed that Aetna was due a setoff against whatever judgment they received after trial. Commercial Union failed to raise the issue in the settlement proceedings, essentially sandbagging the McKinnons into settling, and it is Commercial Union that should reimburse Aetna (as it has). Once the McKinnons agreed to a settlement of $500,000 for the Jones Act claim, their role in this affair should have ended. Instead, the court today affirms the district court’s ruling that the McKinnons actually agreed to a settlement of less than $450,000, and only thought that they had agreed to a settlement of $500,000. Because I cannot condone this chicanery by Commercial Union, and I do not believe the law condones such behavior, I respectfully dissent.