Parramatta ready to sue insurer QBE over Watmough
An angry Parramatta are preparing to take landmark legal action against the NRL’s insurer, QBE, over its denial of a career-ending payout to former star Anthony Watmough — a move that could open the floodgates to similar actions across the code.
Yesterday, Eels chairman Max Donnelly told
The Australian that the club was now “virtually certain” to go to court against the insurance giant.
QBE denied the insurance payout to Watmough last year over the knee injury that ended his career 12 months into his four-year, $2 million-plus deal with Parramatta that was not due to expire until the end of 2018, claiming the injury was “pre-existing”.
“In the circumstances, we have determined that you are not eligible for the benefits claimed under this policy,” QBE said.
QBE was brought into the game in 2014 as the insurer of the top 25 footballers at each NRL club, ostensibly to protect players after Newcastle Knights star Alex McKinnon’s on-field accident that left him a quadriplegic. But its ruling against Watmough has left Donnelly seething.
“We’re paying tens of thousands of dollars per annum in insurance to cover just this sort of eventuality,” he said. “If they don’t pay out on this, why do we have insurance? It’s outrageous.”
Donnelly said the dispute had started “last August, when we got this letter (from QBE) saying it was a pre-existing injury”.
Parramatta had maintained Watmough suffered his career-ending injury in February last year, in a “friendly fire” pre-season training mishap with Eels teammate Beau Scott.
While QBE confirmed in a letter last year that the assessment that Watmough was “no longer able to play in the NRL competition”, it claimed the incapacity was the result of “an established medical degenerative condition”, particularly “osteoarthritis” in his left knee.
QBE’s ruling has massive implications for the NRL’s 16 clubs. It creates a ticking time-bomb for other players hit with career-ending injuries — with more believed to have lodged claims with QBE since Watmough — and potentially leaves clubs liable for millions of dollars in payouts that they thought were covered by the insurer.
The insurer claimed that for the purposes of any payout, a “career-ending injury” did not include “a pre-existing condition” or “any degenerative condition or wear and tear”.
The QBE ruling rejected that Watmough’s injury was down to a training accident.
“Prior to the accident you were experiencing ongoing symptoms and disability relating to your left knee,” the insurer stated. “For example, notes from the club physiotherapist ... show that before the accident you were receiving injections of Marcaine to your left knee prior to games.”
QBE listed four dates in January and February last year in which it claimed Watmough’s knee was “intermittently symptomatic”, citing notes by the club physiotherapist.
A QBE spokesperson has previously claimed that “the medical examiner’s report was clear — it wasn’t a new injury that forced (Watmough’s) retirement, rather the result of chronic and degenerative problems that have been well documented”.
Meanwhile, Parramatta is understood to have this week reached a confidential settlement with Watmough’s representatives over the remaining years on his contract, to be paid directly by the club in the absence of a payout from QBE.
It is believed the club will also share part of any funds it may recover from QBE with Watmough.
Donnelly said that the club would now be arming itself for battle with QBE.
“The process now is we will have to gather the medical evidence to contradict the determination,” he said.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/spo...h/news-story/565cea96592fbde5dff24cf1fcf185b7
