Well, it’s finally Super Bowl weekend, so how do we tie that into the issues covered by this blog? Easy. Here’s a terrific article in this week’s Sports Illustrated (hey, we can’t get all our reading from Aspen Publishers) on the problem of disability and health benefits – and the fact that there effectively
Long Term Disability Benefits
And in NFL News . . .
By Stephen Rosenberg on
Posted in Long Term Disability Benefits
Here’s an interesting little case out of the Fourth Circuit this week concerning what, at this point, must be the world’s most famous long term disability plan, namely the NFL’s Bert Bell/Pete Rozelle NFL Player Retirement Plan. This plan has been the subject of much media commentary over the past few years, as former players…
The Meaning of Arbitrary and Capricious Review
By Stephen Rosenberg on
Posted in Long Term Disability Benefits, Standard of Review
A colleague – who, to protect the innocent, shall remain nameless (sort of a blog witness protection program) – passed along this remarkable decision out of the Fourth Circuit this month, Evans v. Eaton Corporation Long Term Disability Plan. The decision is an elegant and sustained defense of the granting of discretion to administrators…
When Can You Sue an Employer for Denial of ERISA Governed Benefits?
By Stephen Rosenberg on
Posted in Benefit Litigation, Long Term Disability Benefits
Interesting case out of the United States District Court for the District of Maine the other day, concerning a challenge by a plan participant to how his long term disability payments were calculated. The court essentially found that, since deferential review applied, the administrator’s calculation method could not be challenged, since it was a reasonable…
How an Administrator Can Lose The Right To An Offset
By Stephen Rosenberg on
Posted in Benefit Litigation, Long Term Disability Benefits
This is actually a kind of fascinating, if someone odd, long term disability benefits case out of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts. It involves what otherwise would seem to be a remarkably unnoteworthy issue, namely the right of the plan administrator – an insurer who also administered the plan –…
What Critics of The Standard of Review In Cases Involving Structural Conflicts of Interest Are Really Complaining About
There’s a very interesting long term disability decision that was just issued by the District of New Hampshire that is worth a read, not so much for the case itself as for its commentary concerning the standard of review under ERISA in instances where the administrator has been granted discretionary authority by the plan. The…
When Does Plan Language Mandate De Novo Review?
By Stephen Rosenberg on
Posted in Long Term Disability Benefits, Standard of Review
I wanted to take a moment over the next couple of posts to return to a couple of cases from earlier this month that are worth a look and a comment, but that I haven’t had a chance to talk about yet. One of them is a decision by Judge Lindsay of the United States…
Cost of Living Benefits and Disability Benefits
There are some who believe that insurance policies are by definition ambiguous – mostly lawyers who solely represent policyholders for a living – and others, on occasion including judges, who sometimes seem to believe that unless a policy specifically excludes something, than it is either ambiguous and provides coverage or simply provides coverage because the…
The Latest Word Out of the First Circuit on Pre-existing Conditions, Long Term Disability Benefits, and Uncertainty Over the Standard of Review
No one is quicker to post about decisions out of the First Circuit than Appellate Law & Practice, who quickly had this post up on Friday about the First Circuit’s opinion issued that day in a long term disability benefits case where the plan and the administrator prevailed at the District Court, and then again…
Summary Plan Descriptions and Discovery in ERISA Cases: the Latest from the First Circuit
The First Circuit issued an opinion in the case of Morales-Alejandro v. Medical Card System on Wednesday. The case, which involved a challenge to a denial of long term disability benefits, is noteworthy for two aspects. The first is that the case reaffirms this circuit’s reluctance to allow discovery beyond production of the administrative record…