Bryner v. Cardon Outreach, LLC, 2018 UT 52 (Sept. 24, 2018)

Plaintiffs filed a class action lawsuit against a group of hospitals arguing that the Hospital Lien Statute, Utah Code § 38-7-1, requires a hospital to pay its proportional share of an injured person’s attorney fees and costs when a hospital lien is paid due to the efforts of the injured person’s attorney.  The court affirmed the district court’s grant of summary judgment to the hospital defendants, concluding that the hospital lien statute is unambiguous and that it creates a priority for the distribution of the proceeds in third-party liability cases.