A recent 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling raises the question of who gets the last word in an ERISA claim appeal. In Balmert v. Reliance Standard Life Ins.Co., 2010 U.S.App.LEXIS 2439 (6th Cir. Feb. 5, 2010), the plaintiff, Maribea Balmert, worked as an accountant-tax manager for Big Lots Inc. beginning in 2001. She […]
A recent ruling from the 1st Circuit illustrates a marked disparity between how different federal circuits adjudicate ERISA claims. In Richards v. Hewlett-Packard Corp., 2010 U.S.App.LEXIS 1010 (1st Cir., Jan. 19), the plaintiff, Edward Richards, who worked for Digital Equipment Corporation from 1984 to 1991 as a software engineer, became disabled at age 39 due […]
The saga of Fitts v. Unum Life Ins.Co. of America, 2010 U.S.Dist.LEXIS 2529 (D.D.C. Jan. 13, 2010), which has spanned more than 10 years, has finally come to an end. The case went to the Court of Appeals twice on the issue of whether Unum’s limitation on the duration of benefits for mental and nervous disorders applied to bipolar disorder suffered by Jane Fitts. After the most recent appellate ruling, which I wrote about in an earlier article (“Struggle over ‘mental illness’ exclusions,” Chicago Daily Law Bulletin, March 31, 2008), the parties finally reached a settlement.
Conflict of interest in the administration of benefit claims is a topic that has long concerned Judge William Acker Jr. of the Northern District of Alabama. Blankenship v. Metropolitan Life Insurance Co., Civ. No. 08-AR-0639-S (N.D. Ala., Dec. 30) is merely the latest in a series of rulings critical of the manner in which courts have treated ERISA cases.
In McGahey v. Harvard University Flexible Benefits Plan, 2009 U.S.Dist. LEXIS 115364 (D.Mass. Dec. 11, 2009), the court wrestled with how to apply a deferential standard of review in evaluating a claim for disability benefits. The plaintiff, Rosemary McGahey, who had worked as the director of residential dining at Harvard University, injured her right knee when she slipped on ice while at work in February 2004.