Dill

Do the exclusive remedy provisions of the workers’ compensation system preclude this action by plaintiff Paul Dill against defendant Claims Administration Services, Inc. (CAS), the independently retained claims administrator for a self-insured employer who is alleged to have intentionally failed to pay workers’ compensation benefits despite a recognition that payment of such benefits was legally mandated? The trial court answered this question by sustaining CAS’s demurrer to each of Dill’s five causes of action without leave to amend. We disagree with the trial court’s rationale, but conclude that the demurrer as to one of the causes of action was properly sustained on the independent ground that because “insurance” and “self-insurance” are not identical, a claims administrator for a self-insured entity is not “engaged in the business of insurance” for the purposes of the statute defining unfair insurance practices.

In reaching these conclusions, we defer to the literal meaning of the Labor and Insurance Codes, which we believe are the result of energetic legislative advocacy on the part of most if not all the affected interests. We apply the literal meaning of the…