Can a claimant who is injured in a motor vehicle accident proceed with an action at law for workmen's compensation instead of pursuing compensation for the same injury?

It is our opinion, therefore, that the claimant cannot have the benefit of both remedies. A party should not be permitted to experiment with an action at law for the purpose of ascertaining how much he can get, and then, if dissatisfied, repudiate the recovery and seek to claim the benefits of workmen's compensation. Although section 32 of the Workmen's Compensation Law (prohibiting compromise and waiver) is intended to protect a claimant from his own improvidence and folly, it was certainly not intended to permit harassing and inconsistent [8 N.Y.2d 231] actions resulting in unnecessary and prolonged litigation and possibly multiple recoveries. If we were to allow claimants to so proceed, via this legally calculated scheme, we would certainly discourage settlement and encourage vexatious litigation. This, of course, is also binding on those claimants who first seek and recover in compensation proceedings, and then attempt an additional recovery, on an inconsistent theory, in an action at law (Legault v. Brown, 283 App.Div. 303, 127 N.Y.S.2d 601 (complaint now stating that injury not accidental was dismissed)).