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.
In Employee Retirement Income Security Act benefits litigation, the selection of the judicial standard of review often dictates the outcome of the case.
Is a significant risk of relapse, if a disability benefit claimant were to return to work, a current disability? That was the question answered in Colby v. Union Security Ins. Co., 2013 U.S.App.LEXIS 1149 (1st Cir. Jan. 17, 2013). Although the court acknowledged that another court of appeals had decided the issue differently, in this […]
All disability insurance policies contain provisions requiring that insureds receive regular care from a physician. However, such clauses are usually liberally interpreted. For example in Heller v. Equitable Life Ins. Soc’y, 833 F.2d 1253, 1257 (7th Cir. 1987), the court ruled that such a clause could not be read to require an insured to undergo […]
Buzzanga v. Life Ins. Co. of N. Amer., 2013 U.S.Dist.LEXIS 1348 (E.D.Mo. January 4, 2013) (Issue: Scope of Review).
The threshold issue in every Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA)-governed benefit dispute is the standard of review utilized by the court in adjudicating the claim. Following the Supreme Court’s ruling in Firestone Tire & Rubber Co. v. Bruch, 489 U.S. 101 (1989), a veritable land rush ensued as insurers and plan administrators sought to […]
When an intoxicated driver dies in a collision, can his survivors collect under an accidental death insurance policy? Most courts deem such an occurrence an accident; however, in Whinery v. Life Ins.Co. of North America, 2012 U.S.Dist.LEXIS 160667 (C.D.Cal. Nov. 7, 2012), the court upheld an insurer’s benefit denial under a deferential standard of review. […]
As the recent case of White v. Prudential Ins.Co., 2012 U.S.Dist.LEXIS 160773 (E.D.Pa. Nov. 9, 2012) illustrates, whether a disabling condition is psychiatric or physical is not easily determined. The plaintiff in this case, James White, worked as the chief operating officer, chief financial officer and director of risk management at Holt Oversight & Logistical Technologies. In 2007, White was seriously injured in a rollover car accident that occurred when his vehicle was struck by another car.
A federal court has allowed an insurance company to argue a previously waived defense in a disability benefits case, deviating from typical procedural rules. In Safer v. Reliance Standard Life Insurance Co., 2021 WL 2370381 (E.D. La. June 9, 2021), the plaintiff filed a lawsuit after the insurer denied his claim for long-term disability benefits.
Abuse of prescription narcotic pain medications has drawn increasing media scrutiny now that drug overdose deaths have surpassed automobile accidents as the leading cause of accidental death in the United States (See, “Prescription for Addition,” Wall Street Journal, Oct. 6, 2012). In a recent decision from Oregon, the court was called upon to decide whether […]
A federal court has ruled that an insurance company’s use of surveillance in denying a claim for disability benefits was an abuse of discretion. In Spooner v. Reliance Standard Life Insurance Co., 2021 WL 2720302 (E.D.N.Y. July 1, 2021), the plaintiff was a former account executive with a media company who stopped working due to chronic pain from fibromyalgia, a sleep disorder and a psychiatric condition.
During the U.S. Supreme Court’s upcoming term, the court is scheduled to hear the case of U.S. Airways v. McCutchen, 663 F.3d 671 (3d Cir. 2011), which was the subject of an earlier article of mine (“McCutchen may influence other court decisions,” Nov. 25, 2011). McCutchen will address the complex question of whether equitable principles […]