Can an employer or his workmen's compensation insurer recover from a negligent third party?

Various provisions of the Labor Code ¹ subrogate an employer (or his workmen's compensation insurer) to the common law tort recovery of an injured employee, permitting the employer/carrier to recover its workmen's compensation outlays from a negligent third party through an independent, lawsuit, or by joining the employee's lawsuit or by claiming a lien on the employee's recovery. ( 3852, 3853, 3854, 3856, subd. (b).) Witt v. Jackson (1961) 57 Cal.2d 57, 17 Cal.Rptr. 369, 366 P.2d 641, attaches a substantive condition to the employer's recovery; holds that the employer may not recover from the third party if his own negligence has contributed to the accident; reduces the employee's recovery of third party damages by the amount of workmen's compensation payments he has received from the employer/carrier.