Can an insurer or third party of record intervene in an action brought by an employee in his name?

Doubtless, employers and carriers sometimes see advantages to themselves in permitting the action to go to trial in the employee's name alone. Otherwise they would always exercise their right to intervene. In every case the absence of the employer as a party of record is a result of his own preference. Those who enjoy these rights of subrogation are, in most cases, sophisticated litigants: qualified insurance companies and permissibly self-insured employers. Now that Witt v. Jackson is in the books, anyone who pays compensation is likely to be aware of the contributory negligence problem and will weigh accordingly the privilege of intervening. In view of the statutory policy of giving the employer the option of remaining off the record, and the opportunity given to the employer to participate as he chooses, we cannot say that the employer is a person whose 'interest would be inequitably affected or jeopardized' so as to make his joinder indispensable under Code of Civil Procedure, section 389.