Insurer Liable

Occupational Disease: Insurer Liable

MONTANA SUPREME COURT DECISIONS

Montana State Fund v. Murray, 2005 MT 97 (No. 04-576) Where two insurers have been on risk during a claimant’s occupational exposure with a single employer, section 39-72-303(2), MCA (1999) requires liability to be placed on the second insurer if claimant was not diagnosed with an occupational disease, nor “knew or should have known that the condition was the result of an occupational disease,” under the first insurer’s watch. The statutory rule so operates even if the duration of exposure was longer under the first insurers’ coverage.

WORKERS' COMPENSATION COURT DECISIONS

In Re Telles; Travelers Property & Casualty Co. of America v. Royal Ins. Co. of America [04/22/05] 2005 MTWCC 21 Section 39-72-303(2), MCA (2001-2003), which governs liability between two insurers for the same employer, is inapplicable to an insurer which did not insure the employer while the claimant was employed. It has application only where the employer was insured by two or more different insurers while the claimant was employed.

State Fund v. Carl Murray [4/6/04] 2004 MTWCC 33 Under the last injurious exposure rule, the insurer at risk during the claimant's last injurious exposure at work prior to the first diagnosis of an occupational disease or the date the claimant knew or should have known he was suffering from an occupational disease is liable for the disease. The length of time the insurer was at risk is irrelevant to determining its liability. Affirmed Montana State Fund v. Murray, 2005 MT 97

MacNeeley v. Everest National [6/12/02] 2002 MTWCC 35 Under the last injurious exposure rule, where an occupational disease is diagnosed the insurer for the employer for whom claimant last worked and was last exposed to repetitive trauma contributing to his occupational disease is liable for the disease.