Utah Supreme Court Rules WCF Assets Not Owned by State

The Utah Supreme Court has declared that Workers Com-pensation Fund’s assets are owned by policyholders, not the state. The ruling in favor of WCF settles long-standing challenges by the State of Utah and upholds previous Supreme Court and district court decisions. In its ruling, the court said, “We affirm the district court’s decision that the ‘State of Utah has no ownership interest in the Workers’ Compensation Fund or its assets other than as a policyholder.’ As a quasi-public corporation, the WCF exists to serve an essential public purpose, to provide workers’ compensation insurance, all the while being private in ownership. Furthermore, apart from the Legislature’s ability to modify its governing statues, the State has no managerial, financial or operational control over the WFC. The same is true for the WCF’s assets, the Injury Fund; and we reaffirm our prior decisions, which have that those assets belong to the WCF policyholder and not to the state.” A. Summerhays, WCF president and CEO, said WCF welcomed the Supreme Court decision. “We are pleased to have the ownership issue finally resolved, and look forward to continue with our primary focusproviding workers compensation insurance services, safety resources and injured worker support that our owners the policyholders deserve.”