Interesting decision out of the First Circuit yesterday, in the case of Denmark v. Liberty Life Assurance Company, that focused on the proper standard of review to apply in cases in which the administrator both decides the claim for benefits and is also the party that will have to pay the benefits if the
Benefit Litigation
Mike Webster to Ted Johnson: Are the NFL and the New York Times Kidding?
I don’t want to turn this blog into a soapbox, and as someone who really likes newspapers, I also don’t want to join the Greek chorus of self-appointed media watchdogs that seems to make up much of the blogosphere. Some things, however, such as this article in the New York Times, call out for…
Insurance Brokers as ERISA Defendants
By Stephen Rosenberg on
Roy Harmon, over at his Health Plan Law blog, has his typically scholarly take on two recent rulings out of the United States District Court for the District of New Hampshire in the case of Hopper v. Standard Insurance Company. The rulings primarily revolve around the question of which claims in the lawsuit…
Electronic Discovery and the Amendment to Rule 26
By Stephen Rosenberg on
Posted in Benefit Litigation, The Hidden Law of ERISA
I came out on the wrong side of this order from one of my cases, but that’s alright; although John Barth’s fictional lawyer in the Floating Opera may have never lost a case, any real life lawyer who tells you the same thing is, well, speaking fiction.
But it is an interesting ruling nonetheless, on…
ERISA, Interpleader and Qualified Domestic Relations Orders
By Stephen Rosenberg on
Recently, waiting for a pretrial conference in federal court on one of my cases, I listened as a judge explained to the lawyers in a different case, based on only knowing the causes of action, what the actual facts of the case before him must be, even though he had never heard from the parties before. He…
The Attorney-Client Privilege, ERISA and the Administrative Record
By Stephen Rosenberg on
No doubt at least some of you have noticed my fixation on the attorney-client privilege, and where its borders should be drawn when a party’s counsel plays a central role in the events that may or may not trigger insurance coverage or show bad faith. I have the same sort of cartographer’s obsession with…
More on Top Hat Plans
By Stephen Rosenberg on
Posted in Benefit Litigation, Retirement Benefits
I have been meaning to return to this point for the last several days, but the crush of business has kept me from it. I discussed in a recent post a case that I think has the potential to be very influential on the subject of proving or disproving top hat status, involving surgeons and…
Procedural Violations in ERISA Claims Handling
By Stephen Rosenberg on
Posted in Benefit Litigation
Probably the most important of the pre-holiday ERISA rulings in the First Circuit is Bard v. Boston Shipping Association, in which the First Circuit provides a detailed explanation of exactly how procedural and regulatory violations in handling ERISA claims will be addressed in this circuit henceforth. Notably, the court rejected the premise that such…
AD&D Policies, ERISA and the Intoxicated Driver
By Stephen Rosenberg on
Posted in Benefit Litigation
It seems that, running up to the holidays, the First Circuit and the district courts in the circuit chose to issue several particularly interesting, some would say even compelling, ERISA decisions. And why not? What lawyer wouldn’t want to receive a detailed analysis of one issue or another under ERISA for the holidays? I know I…
The Fourth Circuit on Equitable Relief and Varity v. Howe
By Stephen Rosenberg on
Posted in Benefit Litigation, Equitable Relief
Here is a neat post about a decision last week out of the Fourth Circuit concerning when equitable relief can be pursued by a plan participant. Supreme Court precedent already narrowly cabins that type of a claim, and the Fourth Circuit enforced that approach in the case before it, in which the participant tried to…