PERA and Govermental Immunity in Colorado
A nice win in a case against Standard Insurance and PERA.
On Friday, May 16, 2008, the Colorado Court of Appeals issued a decision of first impression which addresses Standard Insurance Company’s long pursued argument that it is entitled to governmental immunity in administering claims for disability retirement benefits for the Colorado Public Employees Retirement Association (PERA). Our office has handled many of these claims and faced this argument by Standard on more than one occasion. Until now, the Court of Appeals had not been presented with the legal question of immunity, but, now that it has, it has answered the question correctly. Standard Insurance does not have immunity and may be sued directly.
In the case of Moran v. Standard Insurance Co., No. 06CA2081, the Plaintiff appealed the trial court’s finding that Standard was an “instrumentality” of PERA and (more…)