Magill

BACKGROUND

The following factual summary is drawn from the allegations of the qui tam action

that Ellinger filed in November 2019 against Zurich, ESIS, and Magill. In January 2016,

Ellinger injured his back while working, and he immediately informed his supervisor.

The following month, Ellinger reported to his employer’s human resources manager that

he had sustained a work-related injury and had told his supervisor about it. The human

resources manager created a “time line memorandum” summarizing the conversations

she had with Ellinger about the injury. She placed the memorandum in Ellinger’s

personnel file.

Ellinger filed a workers’ compensation claim based on the injury. Zurich was the

workers’ compensation insurance carrier for Ellinger’s employer, and ESIS was Zurich’s

claims administrator. Magill worked as a senior claims examiner for ESIS and was the

adjuster assigned to investigate Ellinger’s claim.

ESIS denied Ellinger’s claim on an unspecified date. Magill later testified that she

denied the claim because of an April 2016 written statement from Ellinger’s supervisor in

which the supervisor claimed that Ellinger had not reported the injury to him.

2 When…