Plaintiff Precluded from Recovering Medical Expenses by Arbitration Ruling
On April 28, 2010, the Court of Appeals released Fischer v.
Steffen (2009AP1669) [recommended for publication], a case
involving a plaintiff’s effort to collect medical expenses paid
by her auto insurer. The court ruled against the plaintiff and
held that an arbitration ruling (which was unfavorable to the
plaintiff’s auto insurer) precluded the plaintiff from
recovering the medical expenses.
Factually, the case involved a motor vehicle accident where the
plaintiff’s insurer (American Family) paid its $10,000.00
medical payments limit toward $12,157.14 in claimed medical
expenses. American Family then proceeded to arbitration with
the defendant’s insurance company over the med-pay claim. The
arbitration panel ruled against American Family, finding that
the defendant’s insured was not negligent in causing the
accident. Even though the arbitration panel made this finding,
the plaintiff attempted to recover all of the $12,157.14 in
medical expenses when the case later went to trial. The jury
awarded all of the claimed $12,157.14 medical expenses, but the
Court reduced the award by the $10,000.00 which American Family
had lost at arbitration.
