AmTrust North America, Inc. v. Ramon Vasquez, Jr., 140 Nev. Adv. Op. 61 (Sept. 19, 2024)

Prior to AmTrust, Nevada courts were guided not by statute, but by common law, when assessing the degree to which an insurer may assert a claim to damages its insured worker obtained from a third party. One case required courts to use a formula, making insurers bear a portion of the litigation fees and costs when the insurer did not timely intervene.The other limited the portions of the settlement against which insurers could assert a claim, in conflict with the language of NRS § 616C.215.The Court in AmTrust held that the Breen formula is unworkable and that both Breen and Poremba were fundamentally in conflict with the plain language of NRS § 616C.215. Thus, the Court held that moving forward, litigants and courts should focus solely on the statutory language. This decision enforced an insurer’s right to recover from the total amount of a third-party settlement.