A technician was injured while repairing an MRI machine at the DuPont Hospital. He worked for a third-party contractor who maintained the machines for the hospital. His employer’s workers’ compensation provider paid close to $1 million in benefits. The instant case is the technician’s and his wife’s negligence suit against the hospital and related parties. The parties to the negligence suit reached a settlement that paid some damages to the technician and some damages to his wife for loss of consortium. The wife’s recovery cannot be attacked via subrogation, though the husband’s recovery is subject to subrogation. The workers’ compensation provider petitioned to intervene because it anticipated a subrogation action and saw the division of the award as a way of unlawfully shielding the couple’s recovery from subrogation. The Pennsylvania Superior Court ruled that the order denying intervention was an appealable interlocutory order and that the lower court erred in denying intervention.
