Midwest Builders' Casualty Mutual Company and Iowa Trenchless, L.C.
v.
RP Constructors, LLC
Appellant
Midwest Builders' Casualty Mutual Company and Iowa Trenchless, L.C.
Appellee
RP Constructors, LLC
Attorney for the Appellant
Gregory T. Cook and Eric C. Harmon
Attorney for the Appellee
Matthew D. Hammes and Maggie E. Frei
Court of Appeals
Court of Appeals Opinion
Opinion Number:
Date Published:
Summary
Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Sioux County, Roger L. Sailer, Judge. AFFIRMED. Considered without oral argument by Badding, P.J., and Buller and Langholz, JJ. Opinion by Langholz, J. (9 pages)
Midwest Builders’ Casualty Mutual Company and Iowa Trenchless, L.C. appeal the district court’s summary-judgment ruling dismissing their negligence suit against RP Constructors, LLC because they failed to comply with the requirements of Iowa Code section 85.22(2) (2022) to obtain the right of subrogation to maintain the suit. OPINION HOLDS: Under nearly a century of supreme court precedent interpreting section 85.22(2) and its predecessors, workers’ compensation subrogation rights do not attach unless an employee is provided ninety days’ written notice. That did not happen here. Midwest Builders and Iowa Trenchless have failed to distinguish those controlling cases. And we are not at liberty to overrule them. So we affirm the district court’s grant of summary judgment to RP Constructors.
