CVN screenshots of plaintiff attorney Sean Claggett, left, and defense attorney Jon Morrow, right, delivering their opening statements
Denver, CO - A Colorado state court jury heard opening statements on Monday in a lawsuit accusing an insurance company of failing to approve critically needed inpatient rehab treatment for a worker who suffered a major traumatic brain injury, and the full trial is being webcast gavel-to-gavel by Courtroom View Network.
Plaintiff Fermin Salguero-Quijada sued Norguard Insurance Company, a unit of Berkshire Hathaway, accusing them of acting in bad faith by refusing to pay for specialized inpatient treatment after he fell from a ladder while painting apartment complexes in Utah. His attorney Sean Claggett of Claggett & Sykes Trial Lawyers says the decision caused a needless gap in treatment that allowed Salguero-Quijada’s injuries to become permanent.
Norguard maintains there was a reasonable dispute over whether Salguero-Quijada was eligible for their workman’s comp coverage or whether the company that subcontracted with the painting company he worked for was responsible, and that they made their coverage decisions based on recommendations from his own worker’s comp physician.
Claggett told the Denver County jury during his opening statement how Salguero-Quijada fell from a ladder in September of 2021, which resulted in a severe brain injury that put him in a coma until November. He described workers comp insurance as a “great compromise” which should in theory allow injured workers to get coverage for their injuries - even if caused by their own actions - without having to hire a lawyer.
However Claggett claimed Norguard’s refusal to pay for inpatient rehab care, which resulted in a still badly disabled Salguero-Quijada having to take a commercial flight back to Denver and receive care from family members, put him in the position of having no recourse but to sue the insurer.
“Ultimately this case is about an insurance company’s calculated decision to deny coverage for an injured worker resulting in his unnecessary physical impairment that is now permanent,” he said.
Claggett detailed to the jury that Salguero-Quijada initially made significant progress while hospitalized in Utah, but that progress was squandered when he then went nearly two years without additional treatment beyond a finite number of outpatient rehab sessions, which was supposedly all Norguard would approve.
Salguero-Quijada finally began receiving intensive inpatient treatment in 2024, but by then Claggett said it was largely too late for him to have any hope of a recovery, telling jurors the phrase often used by neurological healthcare providers that “time equals brain.”
“There is a window to treat brain injuries, and Norguard’s wrongful denial of the claim caused this.” Claggett said. He didn’t ask for a specific amount of damages during his opening statement, but he did say they would be “significant” and that he would also pursue an unspecified amount of punitive damages.
Representing Norguard, defense attorney Jonathan Morrow of Knight Nicastro Mackay told jurors that Claggett’s version of events was largely shaped by testimony from a paid expert witness, which Morrow said didn’t line up with the recommendations from Salguero-Quijada’s own worker’s comp physician that Norguard supposedly relied on.
He pushed back aggressively on the claim Norguard was unwilling to pay for Salguero-Quijada’s treatment, telling jurors that despite questions about whether he was even eligible for coverage from Norguard to begin with that the company began making payments as far back as 2021 in the immediate aftermath of the accident.
“We have paid out $2.1 million to date and will continue paying wages and benefits for the rest of his life,” Morrow emphasized.
He walked jurors through all the medical care Salguero-Quijada received so far that Norguard fully paid for, arguing that all of it met the standard of care and that Salguero-Quijada’s permanent injuries are a result of the accident itself and not because of any delay in receiving treatment.
The trial is taking place before 2nd Judicial District Judge Sarah Wallace, and CVN’s live and on-demand coverage of the trial will continue for the duration of the proceedings.
The case is captioned Fermin Salguero-Quijad v. Norguard Insurance Company, case number 2023CV32798.
E-mail David Siegel at dsiegel@cvn.com
