SEPTA does not have to pay back the workers’ compensation of a woman who was injured on one of its buses in the course of her employment after the woman settled a tort claim with the public transit giant, the state Supreme Court has ruled, because of SEPTA’s sovereign immunity powers.
The opinion in Frazier v. Workers’ Compensation Appeal Board, decided unanimously by the state Supreme Court last month, examines Section 23 of Act 44 granting state agencies immunity from subrogation claims by considering the following question: What happens when a claimant collects workers’ compensation and then settles with a third-party state agency when that state agency meanwhile offered to indemnify the claimant if its employer went for subrogation?
