Kansas Court of Appeals Decision

The Kansas Court of Appeals issued a published decision on March 18, 2022, in favor of our client, in Turner v. Pleasant Acres, No. 123,552, distinguishing federal case law that had been in place since 1981. The Court of Appeals held that, despite the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit’s opinion in Knight v. Insurance Company of North America, 647 F.2d 127 (10th Cir. 1981), the Kansas Workers Compensation Act, specifically K.S.A. §44-504(b), does not distinguish between the types of recovery to which a workers compensation lien attaches. Our client was thus granted a subrogation lien where one would have previously been denied, involving uninsured motorist benefits. This clears the way for Respondents to successfully assert statutory liens against settlements and judgments where a plaintiff/claimant attempts to recover duplicate damages through an uninsured motorist action and a workers compensation claim.

Congratulations to Tim Emerson in our Wichita office for his success on behalf of the client.

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Wallace Saunders and ACLU obtain parole decision for Bobby Bostic

Wallace Saunders, together with the ACLU, provided pro bono services to Bobby Bostic and obtained a decision from the Missouri Department of Probation and Parole granting Bostic parole. Bostic had been sentenced to 241 years in prison for a robbery which he committed as a minor at the age of 16. At his sentencing, the Court advised Bostic that he would “die in the Department of Corrections.” Bostic has served 26 years of that sentence before this week’s decision.

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