Perreira v. Rediger

In Perreira v. Rediger, 330 N.J. Super. 455, 750 A.2d 126 (App.Div.2000), the Court held that the collateral source rule of N.J.S.A. 2A:15-97 does not bar the health insurer of the plaintiff in a non-automobile, 1 personal-injury negligence action from asserting a claim of reimbursement from the plaintiff or subrogation against the tortfeasor. Both in Perreira and in the consolidated companion case of Achor v. Oxford Health Plans, Inc. which the Court also then decided, there was no question but that the insurer's remedy would not affect the plaintiffs' right to a full recovery from the tortfeasor, that is, the fair value of their respective personal injury claim less the medical expenses that the health insurer had paid. Indeed, the Court emphasized in that opinion that our conceptual predicate was to assure that while plaintiffs are not, by virtue of the collateral source rule, entitled to recovery of their medical expenses both from the tortfeasor and from their own health insurers, they must nevertheless be assured, with respect to their other damage claims, of "the full extent of the single recovery to which they are entitled. . . ." Perreira, supra, 330 N.J. Super. at 466-467, 750 A.2d 126.