Court Opinion

ID: 9539282
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 16:01:32.561085+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T14:58:40.788532
License: Public Domain

STEWART, Justice,
dissenting:
The holding of this case is premised on this Court’s decision in Sullivan v. Scoular Grain Co., 853 P.2d 877 (Utah 1993). The result of the holding is that plaintiff’s recovery has been reduced twice: first by reducing plaintiff’s judgment in his tort action by the percentage of his employer’s fault, and second by requiring plaintiff to reimburse his employer for the workers’ compensation benefits the employer paid him out of the judgment he obtained in the tort action. It was precisely this injustice that the Legislature sought to avoid when it carefully drafted the Utah Liability Reform Act of 1986, which the majority erroneously interpreted in Sullivan.