Strate v. Niagara Machine & Tool Works

160 F. Supp. 296, 1958 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2487
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. Indiana
DecidedMarch 28, 1958
DocketNo. IP 58-C-7
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 160 F. Supp. 296 (Strate v. Niagara Machine & Tool Works) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. Indiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Strate v. Niagara Machine & Tool Works, 160 F. Supp. 296, 1958 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2487 (S.D. Ind. 1958).

Opinion

STECKLER, Chief Judge.

This cause comes before the court on the following related matters:

1. The motion of the defendant, Niagara Machine and Tool Works, to add as an additional party plaintiff the American Insurance Company. Said motion was filed in this court on February 21, 1958.

2. The motion of American Insurance Co. of Newark, New Jersey for leave to intervene in the above captioned cause, said motion having been filed in this court on March 7, 1958.

3. The motion of defendant Niagara Machine and Tool Works for an extension of time within which to file its answer to plaintiff’s complaint, said motion having been filed in this court on February 21, 1958.

Defendant’s motion to add an additional party plaintiff in the person of the American Insurance Company is predicated upon the following grounds:

(a) At the time of the accident referred to in the plaintiff’s complaint, the plaintiff was an employee of Harper J. Ransburg Co., Inc.

(b) Pursuant to the Indiana Workmen’s Compensation Act, the American Insurance Co., as the Workmen’s Compensation insurer of said Harper J. Ransburg Co., Inc., has paid the plaintiff’s medical and hospital bills, as well as compensation for permanent and partial disability.

(c) By virtue of said payments to plaintiff, American Insurance Co. is a subrogee of plaintiff’s claim against the defendant herein and as such is therefore a “real party in interest” in this proceeding within the meaning of Rule 17 (a), Federal Rules of Civil Procedure [28 U.S.C.A.],

On March 14, 1958, the plaintiff filed its “Memorandum Re Defendant’s Motion to Add Additional Party Plaintiff and Motion for Leave to Intervene.” In this memorandum plaintiff states that she has no objection to the petition to intervene filed by American Insurance Company and, in fact, asks the court to order such intervention. As a correlative request, said memorandum asks the court to overrule defendant’s motion to Add An Additional Party Plaintiff.

In its brief in support of its motion to add an additional party plaintiff, defendant relies upon the following cases: Aet-na Casualty & Surety Co. v. United States, 1949, 388 U.S. 366, 70 S.Ct. 207, 4 L.Ed. 171; Gas Service Co. v. Hunt, 10 Cir., 1950, 183 F.2d 417, and Carlson v. Glenn L. Martin Co., D.C.N.D.Ohio 1952, 103 F.Supp. 153. These cases are accurately cited by the defendant as supporting the general proposition that where an insurer has paid a claim arising out of the same subject matter as is involved in a lawsuit brought by the insured against a third party tortfeasor, and the insurer, by virtue of said payment, is by operation of law subrogated either completely or partially to the rights of the party bringing the lawsuit, the insurer is a real party in interest within the terms of Rule 17(a), Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, whose joinder can be compelled under Rule 21, Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. In each of the cited eases, the applicable law operated to subrogate the insurer to the rights of the plaintiff. In the Martin case, the defendant moved to compel the joinder of Liberty Mutual Insurance Company of Bos-' ton, Massachusetts as an additional party plaintiff. Liberty Mutual was the compensation insurance carrier of the employer of plaintiff’s decedent and had assumed and paid benefits to plaintiff pursuant to the provisions of the Workmen’s Compensation Law of Massachusetts. The court noted that “Under the Massachusetts Act, Ann.Laws of Mass, c. 152, § 15, it is subrogated to the right of action plaintiff now asserts to the extent of its payments.” 103 F.Supp. at page 154. Thus, in the Martin case, the granting of the motion to add an additional party plaintiff was predicated,, [298]*298in part at least, upon the provision of the Massachusetts Workmen’s Compensation Act which, by operation of law, subro-gated the insurer to the right of action which plaintiff was asserting. The Aet-na case was the first of four cases decided together by the Supreme Court. In that case, an action was brought under the provisions of the Federal Tort Claims Act, 60 Stat. 842, 28 U.S.C.A. §§ 1346, 2671-2680. The complaint alleged that an employee of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York was injured as a result of the negligence of a United States Post Office Department employee. Respondent insurance carrier had insured the Federal Reserve Bank against its liability for workmen’s compensation, and had duly paid the injured person’s claim under the New York Workmen’s Compensation Law. The complaint further alleged that the injured person had failed to commence any action against the United States within one year after the accident and that his inaction operated, according to New York law, as an assignment to the insurer of his cause of action against the United States. A footnote reference is made to § 29 of the New York Workmen’s Compensation Act, which at the time the action was brought provided that if an injured employee has taken compensation but has failed to commence action against the tortfeasor within one year after the cause of action accrued, “such failure shall operate as an assignment of the cause of action against such other * * * to the * * * insurance carrier liable for the payment of such compensation.” [338 U.S. 366, 70 S.Ct. 209] The complaint was dismissed by the District Court, D.C.E.D.N.Y.1948, 76 F.Supp. 333, on the grounds that the language of the Tort Claims Act was not broad enough to permit suits by a subrogee against the United States. The Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit reversed and remanded. 2d Cir., 1948, 170 F.2d 469. The Supreme Court affirmed, holding that “Rule 17(a) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, 28 U.S. C.A., which were specifically made applicable to Tort Claims litigation, provides that ‘Every action shall be .prosecuted in the name of the real party in interest,’ and of course an insurer-subrogee, who has substantive equitable rights, qualifies as such. If the subrogee has paid an entire loss suffered by the insured, it is the only real party in interest and must sue in its own name. 3 Moore’s Federal Practice (2d Ed.) p. 1339. If it has paid only part of the loss, both the insured and insurer (and other insurers, if any, who have also paid portions of the loss) have substantive rights against the tortfeasor which qualify them as real parties in interest.” 338 U.S. at pages 380, 381, 70 S.Ct. at page 215.

In the Aetna case, as in the Martin case, the holdings were predicated upon the fact that the insurers were subrogees by operation of the applicable Workmen’s Compensation Law. Gas Service Co. v. Hunt, supra, did not involve Workmen’s Compensation and is thus distinguishable from the instant case.

In the instant case, the rights of the insurer to sue the defendant by subrogation are governed by the applicable section of the Indiana Workmen’s Compensation Act. Ind.Ann.Stat.

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Bluebook (online)
160 F. Supp. 296, 1958 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2487, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/strate-v-niagara-machine-tool-works-insd-1958.