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Paradiso v. Tipps Equipment11/20/2003
because of the legal presumption created in Montoya that the worker is made whole by virtue of a settlement, and because this presumption was not litigated or overcome in the district court action but, rather, is at issue in the WCA action, the application of collateral estoppel was improper.
Children pay little attention to Montoya. They argue in a footnote that Montoya's rejection of the fiction of financial wholeness and statement that any problem with satisfaction of a third party claim does not go to double recovery but to the amount of reimbursement, and Gutierrez's formula for determining the amount of reimbursement, have eliminated any presumption that a worker is made whole by a third party settlement.
2. Children's Reliance on Gutierrez
In their answer brief on appeal, Children contend that the district court actually applied the Gutierrez reimbursement formula when it determined that Insurer was entitled to $50,063. Children reach this conclusion based on the court's analysis of each element of damages, as shown in the court's findings. Children assert that " he issue as to whether [Children] are entitled to future benefits was[,] if not explicitly, implicitly litigated by the District Court in its calculation of [Insurer's] right of reimbursement utilizing the Gutierrez formula."
In its brief in chief and reply brief on appeal, Insurer does not mention Gutierrez, or discuss whether the district court applied or necessarily had to have applied the Gutierrez formula. Insurer ignores Gutierrez despite the facts that the court obviously followed the Gutierrez formula, the WCJ relied on Gutierrez in her analysis, and Children relied on Gutierrez in their argument on appeal. We treat Insurer's silence as a concession by Insurer that the court applied the Gutierrez formula.
F. The WCJ Did Not Err in Granting Summary Judgment for Children
Insurer attacks the WCJ's legal determinations on the ground that she had to reach the determinations through independent evaluation of the facts, not by invoking collateral estoppel thereby adopting the district court's findings. Insurer does not attack the WCJ's determinations as being legally erroneous. Therefore, if the WCJ correctly invoked collateral estoppel, Insurer's appellate position cannot succeed. We hold it is unpersuasive and cannot succeed.
The court's Gutierrez analysis, factual findings, and legal determinations as to past and future reimbursement permitted the WCJ to invoke collateral estoppel to bar Insurer from requiring the WCJ to adjudicate the issues that were already and necessarily adjudicated by the district court. Furthermore, the WCJ's unattacked legal determination that Children were not made whole permitted the additional determination that Children were entitled to recover the remainder of compensation due under the 700-week allowance.
The issue regarding Children's claim to future compensation benefits was raised and discussed during the district court proceedings. The parties were well aware of that issue. They could and should have anticipated that the issue would be decided either by the court or the WCJ. Insurer could and should have anticipated that the district court's findings of fact might be employed to resolve the issue whether Children were made whole under Montoya and Gutierrez, and the issue whether Children had a right to further benefits. Although Insurer might have reasonably believed that the court's statements regarding its findings would protect Insurer in the WCA proceeding, the findings were made, and they were made in connection with the closely related issue of Insurer's reimbursem
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