Aetna Casualty & Surety Co. v. Gilreath

OPINION

FONES, Justice.

The issues in this case involve the alleged liability of a lawyer to a workers’ compensation insurance carrier for disbursing the proceeds of an out-of-court settlement of a pending third-party action without satisfying the carrier’s statutory lien declared upon such proceeds by T.C.A. § 50-914.

Plaintiff Aetna Casualty and Surety Company paid workers’ compensation benefits totalling $30,875.35, as the insuror of Harrison Incorporated, to Don Ledbetter, its employee, who thereafter pursued a third-party action against three alleged tort-feasors. His attorney was defendant…