Workers compensation death benefit. No set-off for life insurance.

 Estate of Dunn v. Windham Northeast Supervisory Union, 2012 VT 91 (Reiber, C.J )

This case asks us to determine whether a workers’ compensation insurer is entitled to reimbursement of death benefits it has paid when a claimant’s beneficiary also receives proceeds from a life-insurance policy.  We hold that under 21 V.S.A. § 624(e) a workers’ compensation carrier cannot seek reimbursement from life-insurance payments because such proceeds are not “damages,” as contemplated by the statute, paid because of a third party’s tortious actions.  We therefore affirm the Commissioner of Labor’s grant of summary judgment to the estate of claimant.