Estate of Apple Ex Rel. Apple v. Commercial Courier Express, Inc.

I agree with this Court’s reasoning in our first opinion, Estate of Worth Apple v. Commercial Courier Express, Inc., 165 N.C. App. 530, 598 S.E.2d 623 (2004) ("Apple I").

As stated in Apple I and restated above in the majority’s opinion, the issue before this Court is whether plaintiff has standing to assert the non-payment of medical expenses by Apple’s employer to a third-party provider. In Apple I, we held:

plaintiff has no standing to bring a claim for past due medical expenses owed to a third-party medical provider by an employer in a compensable workers’ compensation claim where[:] (1)…