Can an employer be held liable for a worker's compensation claim where the employee is injured in a motor vehicle accident?

"An adjunct of subrogation is the rule prohibiting double recovery of damages, a rule of special importance in the prosecution of subrogation claims because the proration of damages among those who have shared the [3 Cal.App.4th 377] costs of personal injuries increases the possibility of duplicate claims for the same loss. Only one totality of recovery of damages for personal injuries is allowed, and only one totality of liability may be imposed on the tortfeasor. [Citations.] Duplicate recovery of damages is barred, and neither double recovery of the same item of loss nor double liability for the same item of injury is permitted. [Citations.] Whether an action is brought by an employer, a compensation carrier, [or] an employee, ... the burden on the tortfeasor remains the same. [Citations.]" (See also Board of Administration v. Glover (1983) 34 Cal.3d 906, 912, 196 Cal.Rptr. 330, 671 P.2d 834.)

Although the workers' compensation statutes are primarily procedural in nature, "they make it possible for the third party to be held liable 'for all the wrong his tortfeasance brought about' [citation.] regardless of whether it is the employee or the employer who brings suit." (County of San Diego v. Sanfax Corp., supra, 19 Cal.3d at p. 873, 140 Cal.Rptr. 638, 568 P.2d 363.) Thus, to the extent that the damages which the employee recovers from a third party simply duplicate the benefits which the employee has already received from the employer, the employee's own recovery provides a fund from which the employer may draw. (Id. at pp. 872-873, 140 Cal.Rptr. 638, 568 P.2d 363.)