White v. St. Alphonsus Regional Medical Center

LANSING, Judge.

This appeal presents a question as to which party holds the superior claim to payment from the proceeds of a personal injury settlement. One claimant is the hospital that provided medical services to the injured person and asserts a statutory hospital lien. The competing claimant is the attorney who represented the injured person to obtain the settlement. He claims a statutory or common law attorney’s charging lien and, alternatively, requests application of the “common fund” doctrine. The district court imposed the common fund doctrine in favor of the attorney and on that…