Hand v. Uninsured Employers' Fund8/28/2002
lan No. 1, 2, or 3, except as provided in 39-71-503(2).
However, the laws in effect at that time also provided, as they do now, for the UEF to recover any benefits paid a claimant from the uninsured employer. Section 39-71-504(2)(a), MCA (1991), provided:
(2) (a) The fund shall receive from an uninsured employer an amount equal to all benefits paid or to be paid from the fund to an injured employee of the uninsured employer. However, the uninsured employer's liability under this subsection (2)(a) may not exceed $50,000.
Thus, if claimant recovers in this case, the UEF would be statutorily entitled to seek repayment from Roush.
The comprehensive General Release was clearly and unequivocally intended to prevent that possibility. While the release has been set out in full earlier in this decision, the pertinent parts bear repeating here:
KNOW ALL MEN BY THESE PRESENTS:
That I, DENNIS HAND, for and in consideration of the sum of THREE HUNDRED TWENTY-EIGHT THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED AND NO/100 DOLLARS ($328,500.00) . . . have released and discharged and by these presents do release and forever discharge G. JON ROUSH and KATHERINE M. ROUSH, husband and wife, d/b/a the SWITCHBACK RANCH, the said TRAVELERS INSURANCE COMPANIES, and their past, present, and future officers, directors, attorneys, agents, servants, representatives, employees, subsidiaries, affiliates, partners, predecessors and successors in interest, assigns, insurers and reinsurers, and all other persons, firms, or corporations (hereinafter collectively referred to as the Releasees), whether herein named or referred to or not, and who, together with the above-named released parties, may be in any wise directly or indirectly liable to me, of and from any and all actions and causes of action, claims, and demands of every kind whatsoever, whether arising out of contract or tort or by operation of law, and whether for compensatory or punitive damages, from the beginning of time until the date of this release. This release shall include, but is not limited to, all my claims for damages, punitive damages, fraud, mental suffering, emotional distress, physical distress, psychic injury , costs, unfair claim settlement practices arising under Title 33, Chapter 18, Montana Code Annotated and compensation of every kind, arising from and by reason of any conduct, acts, or omissions to act by Releases in investigating, adjusting, handling, litigating, and negotiating various claims of mine arising as a result of injuries that I suffered on or about September 18, 1992 and October 10, 1992 at Florence, Montana, while working for G. Jon Roush and Katherine M. Roush, husband and wife, d/b/a the Switchback Ranch.
The release could hardly be more clear in its intent to release not only the Roushes and Travelers, but any other entities which may be derivatively liable, from "any and all actions and causes of action . . . from the beginning of time until the date of this release." It could not be more clear in its intent to protect the Roushes from any further liability relating to the claimant and its employment of him.
To allow claimant's ODA claim would require one of two things: it would require nullification of the UEF's statutory right to recover payments made to claimant from the Roushes or it would require the Roushes to pay additional amounts in contravention with the claimant's release. Neither alternative is acceptable. I therefore hold that the UEF was released from liability.
I am unsympathetic to claimant's assertions that he did not intend to settle the OD claims. There is no provision in the General Release reserving those claims. Moreover, claima
Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Montana Personal Injury Attorneys
Personal Injury Lawyers
|