The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has limited the ability of some self-insured public employers to recover money paid out to workers injured in motor vehicle accidents and, in the process, cleared up an unsettled area of law.

The justices unanimously ruled May 29 in Pennsylvania State Police v. Workers’ Compensation Appeal Board (Bushta) that where a public employee is injured in a motor vehicle accident and receives Heart and Lung Act benefits, those benefits “subsume” any Workers’ Compensation Act benefits and the employer has no right of subrogation against the employee’s recovery from a third party.