St. Paul Fire & Marine Ins. Co. v. Wood Et Al

CoNley Byed, Justice.

This appeal calls for construction of § 40 of the Workmen’s Compensation Act (Ark. Stat. Ann. § 81-1340 [Repl. 1960]) to determine whether an employee can settle his common law cause of action in negligence against a tort feasor free of any claims of his employer’s Workmen’s Compensation carrier, where the settlement documents specifically preserve all rights of the carrier.

The facts giving rise to this litigation show that on November 17, 1964, appellee Hershel Wayne Wood was injured while employed as a truck driver by Southern Farmers Association when a hydraulically…