Litigation often involves sensitive personal issues that parties are reluctant to publicly disclose. Often in such cases, the parties resort to filing suit under a pseudonym to protect the identity of one or both of the parties. Cases involving disability benefits inherently relate to personal and confidential medical issues, yet courts rarely permit pseudonymous filings […]
Papotto v. Hartford Life & Acc.Ins.Co., 2013 U.S.App.LEXIS 19660 (3d Cir. September 26, 2013) is a significant recently issued case involving ERISA civil procedure. The underlying issue in this case dealt with an accidental death and dismemberment insurance policy. The policy excluded losses “sustained while Intoxicated.” Because the decedent had consumed alcohol prior to his […]
Although the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) clearly delineates the parties who have standing to sue to redress a claimed wrongful benefit denial (employee benefit plan participants and beneficiaries – 29 U.S.C. Section 1132(a)(1)(B)), the statute is silent as to whether insurers that both underwrite and fund employer-sponsored benefits such as disability or health […]
On July 26, 2013, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit issued a ruling in Larson v. United Healthcare Insur.Co., No. 12-1256 click here permitting ERISA plaintiffs to sue insurance companies that underwrite and are responsible for paying benefits when claims are asserted that benefits have been wrongfully denied. This ruling marks a […]
The enforceability of a forum selection clause was the subject of a recent ruling issued by U.S District Judge Milton I. Shadur in Coleman v. Supervalu, Inc. Short Term Disability Program, 2013 U.S.Dist.LEXIS 13372 (N.D.Ill. Jan. 31, 2013). The case involved Eboni Coleman, a retail pharmacist who worked at a Jewel-Osco store in Illinois. Litigation arose after Jewel-Osco’s parent corporation denied Coleman’s short-term disability benefit claim.
Buzzanga v. Life Ins. Co. of N. Amer., 2013 U.S.Dist.LEXIS 1348 (E.D.Mo. January 4, 2013) (Issue: Scope of Review).