In a very significant ruling, the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals offered its view on the scope of a de novo judicial review of a benefits denial claim governed by the ERISA law: ”The claimant was not entitled to trial or to admit desired new evidence outside the administrative record or to discovery.” Plaintiff […]
A production supervisor for an engineering company sought disability benefits after aggravating a back injury when he fell down a flight of stairs. Plaintiff Alfredo Ruiz applied for benefits from Continental Casualty Co. and submitted certification from his attending physician, who reported that due to physical limitations, Ruiz ”may not work.” Additional records were later […]
The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals recently served up a surprise: a comprehensive signed opinion that was issued as unpublished, even though it covers significant ground and makes precedential findings in the course of reversing a denial of disability benefits. Moon v. Unum Provident Corp., 2005 U.S. App. LEXIS 4775 (6th Cir., March 22).
Our law firm recently won a summary judgment ruling in a case that is instructive to litigants having to deal with disability due to severe pain.
Chief U.S. District Judge William Young, the author of the provocative indictment of the claims practices of the Unum Provident Corp. in Radford Trust v. First Unum Life Insurance Company of America, 321 F.Supp.2d 226 (D. Mass. 2004), has written yet another thoughtful opinion. The ruling in Iwata v. Intel Corp., 2004 U.S. Dist. LEXIS […]