Texas Employers Insurance Ass'n v. United States

390 F. Supp. 142, 1975 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13811
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Texas
DecidedFebruary 15, 1975
DocketCA 1-74-40
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 390 F. Supp. 142 (Texas Employers Insurance Ass'n v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Texas Employers Insurance Ass'n v. United States, 390 F. Supp. 142, 1975 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13811 (N.D. Tex. 1975).

Opinion

OPINION

BREWSTER, District Judge.

This action has furnished the Court with the rare opportunity to try a case which was originally filed in a Texas justice of the peace court. 1 *The prosecution and defense hereof will, of course, cost each side several times more than the $144.00 involved. The parties claim that such expense is justified because the legal issue to be decided is a recurring one. It is another phase of the general question before the courts in the two cases cited below of the right of the government to recover from a third party the value of hospital and medical services furnished by it without cost to members or ex-members of its armed forces. The only federal appellate court decisions on the point are United States v. Standard Oil Co., 332 U.S. 301, 67 S.Ct. 1604, 91 L.Ed. 2067 (1947), 2 and Pennsylvania National Mutual Cas. Ins. Co. v. Barnett, 5 Cir., 445 F.2d 573 (1971).

The injuries necessitating the hospital and medical services in the Standard Oil Co. case were sustained by a soldier in a collision with a privately owned truck occurring under circumstances giving rise to a tort action. Though the amount of the government’s claim was less than $200, the Supreme Court granted certiorari because of “the novelty and importance of the principal question”, 3 and wrote a fifteen page opinion on it. The reason given for the importance of the question was that “the issue comes down in final consequence to a question of federal fiscal policy”, the determination of which was vested in Congress. Liability was denied because Congress had not authorized collection of claims of the type involved. Congress later granted such au *144 thority in tort cases by the enactment of 42 U.S.C. § 2651(a).

In the Pennsylvania National case, the government attempted to recover the value of hospital and medical services furnished an ex-member of the armed forces by the Veterans Administration in the treatment of injuries received under such circumstances as to be covered by the Workmen’s Compensation Act of Texas. The government relied upon 42 U.S.C. § 2651(a), 4 and C.F.R., Sec. 17.-48(d) 5 for authority to assert its claim. The Court of Appeals held that the statute was inapplicable because no tort situation was involved, 6 and that the regulation could not be considered because it required an assignment of the claim from the patient, which the Veterans Administration did not have. 7

*145 The present case also involves a claim by the Veterans Administration for hospital and medical services furnished by it to an ex-service man on account of injuries covered by the Texas Workmen’s Compensation Act. The new wrinkle present here is that the Veterans Administration took an assignment from the veteran of his claim to the extent of the value of the services supplied by it.

It would ordinarily be expected that where there are three cases involving only the one question of the right of the government to recover from a third party the value of hospital and medical services furnished free of charge to an injured member or ex-member of the armed forces, thorough opinions of the Supreme Court in the first case and of the Court of Appeals in the second case a few years later would leave no issue of importance for the third case. However, the claim of the government here that an administrative agency has authority to create a new substantial liability affecting the federal fiscal policy by the adoption of a regulation, when the Supreme Court has said that such power should be exercised solely by Congress, presents a question which “ought to make Bentham’s skeleton rattle.” 8

This case was tried before the Court without a jury. The only issue in the case is the legal one heretofore stated. The facts are established as a matter of law either by stipulation or by undisputed documentary evidence. They need be only briefly summarized.

On July 7, 1973, Leslie D. Swiggart sustained an on-the-job injury in the course of his employment for the Pool Company in Big Spring, Howard County, Texas. At the time of such injury, the Pool Company was a workmen’s compensation subscriber unde/an insurance policy issued to it by Texas Employers Insurance Association (Texas Employers), which policy provided for payment of benefits to employees of Pool Company in accordance with the Workmen’s Compensation Act of Texas. Art. 8306, Vernon’s Ann. Civ. St. 9 Those benefits *146 included hospital and medical services and medicines reasonably necessary for the treatment of injuries covered by the Act. Following his injury, Swiggart received medical care and treatment having a reasonable value of $144.00 from the Veterans Administration Hospital in Big Spring, Texas. As an ex-service man, he was entitled to such hospital and medical services without charge to him, and therefore incurred no expense in connection with them.

On July 9, 1973, Swiggart executed an assignment on V. A. Form 1023 to the Administrator of Veterans Affairs for all claims and demands which he might have by reason of any liability of third parties for medical and hospital care and treatment. The assignment was limited to an amount equal to the reasonable charges of hospital and medical care and treatment which Swiggart received. Thereafter, the Veterans Administration, purporting to act under the authority of 38 C.F.R., Sec. 17.48(d), filed with the Texas Industrial Accident Board its claim for the value of such services. On July 18, 1974, the Board entered its award ordering payment of $144.00 to the Veterans Administration.

Texas Employers obviously had some doubt about whether jurisdiction of its suit to set aside the $144.00 award of the Board was vested in the justice court or in the district court. It protected itself by filing its action in each such court in Big Spring, Texas. Both of the cases were removed by the United States to this Court, where they were consolidated for trial.

The Veterans Administration contends that the assignment from Swiggart entitled it to recover under 38 C.F.R., Sec. 17.48(d) the medical and hospital services rendered to Swiggart from the workmen’s compensation insurance carrier. Texas Employers contends that the Veterans Administration is authorized by Congress to recover such expenses from third parties only under circumstances creating a tort liability [42 U.S.C., See. 2651(a)], and that 38 C.F. R., Sec.

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Related

Wayne State University v. Cleland
440 F. Supp. 811 (E.D. Michigan, 1977)
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405 F. Supp. 1024 (E.D. Tennessee, 1975)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
390 F. Supp. 142, 1975 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13811, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/texas-employers-insurance-assn-v-united-states-txnd-1975.