State ex. rel. Royal-McBee Corp. v. Luten

390 S.W.2d 931, 1965 Mo. App. LEXIS 636
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedMay 18, 1965
DocketNo. 31932
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 390 S.W.2d 931 (State ex. rel. Royal-McBee Corp. v. Luten) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State ex. rel. Royal-McBee Corp. v. Luten, 390 S.W.2d 931, 1965 Mo. App. LEXIS 636 (Mo. Ct. App. 1965).

Opinion

WOODSON OLDHAM, Special Judge.

This case is upon the application of the Relators Royal-McBee Corporation, a Corporation, and Travelers Insurance Company, a Corporation, for an original Writ of Mandamus to require Respondent, Honorable Drew Luten, Judge of the Circuit Court of St. Louis County, Mo., to permit them to intervene in a certain action pending in the Circuit Court of St. Louis County. Jurisdiction is in this court by virtue of the nature of the remedy requested and under the provisions of Art. V, Sec. 4 of the Constitution of Missouri, V.A. M.S.

This court issued its Alternative Writ directing the Respondent to allow such intervention or to show cause why such intervention should not be allowed. Respondent filed his return to the Alternative Writ and Relators filed their answer to said return.

From the pleadings, exhibits, suggestions and briefs, the facts set out below appear to be material to the issues involved.

Delores Floyd, hereinafter referred to as Floyd or plaintiff, an employee of Relator Royal-McBee, was injured on September 6, 1962, when her car was struck from the rear by a car operated by Joseph Montal-bano, hereinafter referred to as defendant or Montalbano. At the time of the accident Floyd was acting within the scope of her employment with Royal-McBee and she became entitled to and was paid Workmen’s Compensation by Relator Travelers Insurance Company as insurer of Relator Royal-McBee.

Plaintiff Floyd, on October 8, 1962, brought suit #249463 in the Circuit Court of St. Louis County against Montalbano, claiming damages for personal injuries, medical and hospital expenses, loss Gf earnings, and impairment of earning capacity. In April 1963, plaintiff’s attorney, Sherman Landau, was employed by relators to pursue their interests against Montalbano for compensation paid to plaintiff, on a one-third contingent fee basis. Plaintiff’s case was set for trial in April 1964. Shortly after being notified of the trial date, plaintiff’s attorney, Mr. Landau, notified relators that he and Floyd felt that there was a conflict of interest and that Landau could not continue to represent relators in the matter.

On March 16, 1964, relators filed the Motion and Petition to Intervene involved in the instant case, for the purpose of intervening in the third party lawsuit in order to protect their interest in said case. The Motion and Petition to Intervene were argued and submitted to Respondent, Hon. Drew Luten, on April 10, 1964, and were overruled by him “ * * * without prejudice to movant to refile subsequent to jury verdict.” Relators promptly brought Mandamus to this court to obtain the right to in[933]*933tervene as set out in the application filed herein.

At the time suggestions in support of the Motion to Intervene were filed with the respondent, plaintiff had not filed her formal claim for Workmen’s Compensation so that the amount of relators’ liability to plaintiff, if any, was not yet established.

The pertinent Supreme Court Rule and Statute provide as follows:

Section 287.150, RSMo 1959: V.A.M.S. “SUBROGATION TO RIGHTS OF EMPLOYEE OR DEPENDENTS AGAINST THIRD PERSON — EFFECT OF RECOVERY
“1. Where a third person is liable to the employee or to the dependents, for the injury or death, the employer shall be subrogated to the right of the employee or to the dependents against such third person, and the recovery by such employer shall not be limited to the amount payable as compensation to such employee or dependents, but such employer may recover any amount which such employee or his dependents would have been entitled to recover. Any recovery by the employer against such third person, in excess of the compensation paid by the employer, after deducting the expenses of making such recovery shall be paid forthwith to the employee or to the dependents, and shall be treated as an advance payment by the employer, on account of any future installments of compensation.”
“SUPREME COURT RULE 52.11 INTERVENTION
“(a) Intervention of Right. Upon timely application anyone shall be permitted to intervene in an action: * * * or (2) when the representation of the applicant’s interest by existing parties is or may be inadequate and the applicant is or may be bound by a judgment in the action; * * * ”

Respondent’s return to the Alternative Writ based the refusal to permit relators to intervene on two points; (1) “* * * the relators have a separate cause of action for their subrogation claim * * * ”; and (2) that intervention would “ * * * subject plaintiff to the prejudicial impact of injection of insurance into the trial of her case and to thereby preclude her from receiving a fair consideration from the jury in her case.”

Relators claim to have met all the requirements of Supreme Court Rule 52.11(a) (2), V.A.M.R. for intervention in the Floyd vs. Montalbano case, in that (1) relators filed their Motion to Intervene within ten days after they were notified of the withdrawal of Attorney Landau as representative of their interests; (2) relators claim to have a substantial interest in the lawsuit in which they seek to intervene by reason of having paid compensation to plaintiff Floyd under the Workmen’s Compensation Act; (3) relators claim that their representation in the lawsuit is or may be inadequate (in fact does not exist by reason of the withdrawal of Attorney Landau as their counsel) and (4) that relators would, or may be, bound by the judgment in said case.

Relators’ points (1) and (3), above, are established by the record filed in this court and need not be considered further. Respondent’s point (1) above and relators’ points (2) and (4) are so closely related that they will be considered together.

Section 287.150, V.A.M.S., clearly creates the relators’ interest in the suit by Floyd against Montalbano. This interest is a right of indemnification for the compensation paid and to be paid by relators to Floyd. In O’Hanlon Reports, Inc. v. Ben Needles, 360 S.W.2d 382, 385 (St. Louis Court of Appeals 1962), this court clearly defined and recognized said interest and holds that relators do not have a separate cause of action for their subrogation claim and by so holding establishes that the relators are bound by the judgment [934]*934in the case of the employee against the alleged third party tort-feasor. We adopt with approval the language of this court in that case as follows:

“Plaintiffs were at all times aware that Rosebrock had sued Needles on their behalf, as well as on his own. They had the right to intervene in that action, had they so desired, Beck v. Moll, Mo.App., 102 S.W.2d 671, McKenzie v. Missouri Stables, Inc., supra, but they elected not to do so. * * *
“(4-6) By Section 287.150 the employer is not subrogated to the whole claim of the employee. In fact, he is not even subrogated to the employee’s whole claim for lost wages. His right of subrogation is limited to the compensation paid or payable. Nor does the statutory subrogation create two separate causes of action, as did the assignment in the General Exchange case. Section 287.150 does not take away from the employee his common law right of action against the third party tort-feasor, Schumacher v. Leslie, 360 Mo. 1238, 232 S.W.2d 913; Bunner v. Patti, 343 Mo.

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Bluebook (online)
390 S.W.2d 931, 1965 Mo. App. LEXIS 636, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-ex-rel-royal-mcbee-corp-v-luten-moctapp-1965.