Editor’s Note: In the article below, Manatt discusses the Ninth Circuit’s new opinion in the ongoing Wit v. United Behavioral Health litigation and the changes from the now-vacated January 2023 Wit decision. ...more
The Ninth Circuit has issued a new opinion in the long-running Wit v. United Behavioral Health litigation that changes the legal landscape for ERISA class actions. The Ninth Circuit’s opinion includes significant holdings on...more
In McIntyre v. Reliance Standard Life Insurance Company, 972 F.3d 955 (8th Cir. 2020), the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit clarified the standard of review to apply where there has been a denial of...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: A recent 10th Circuit decision holding that in order for the abuse of discretion standard to apply in litigation the claims administrator must provide participants with actual notice of discretionary...more
Ninth Circuit Affirms Decision Rejecting Suit Seeking Early Retirement Benefits - The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has affirmed a district court’s decision rejecting a plaintiff’s lawsuit seeking to overturn...more
In recent Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) litigation challenging benefit decisions by plan administrators and fiduciaries, litigants have been pleading closely related claims under multiple ERISA...more
In Nichols v. Reliance Standard Life Ins. Co., 924 F.3d 80 (5th Cir. 2019), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit held that when an LTD policy funding an ERISA plan defines "regular occupation" as the way the...more
In Gorbacheva v. Abbott Laboratories Extended Disability Plan, et al., 29 U.S. App. LEXIS 36542 (N.D. Cal. Dec. 10, 2019), the Ninth Circuit reversed a district court's award of attorneys' fees to an ERISA claimant as...more
In Ariana M. v. Humana Health Plan of Texas, Inc., No. 18-20700, 2019 WL 5866677 (5th Cir. Nov. 8, 2019), the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a plaintiff’s petition for attorneys’ fees under 29 U.S.C. § 1132(g). This...more
The Ninth Circuit concluded that a plan fiduciary abused its discretion in denying survival benefits to a pension plan participant’s domestic partner. In so ruling, the Court explained that the plan’s choice of law provisions...more
In an unpublished decision dated May 16, 2019, the Ninth Circuit held that a plan administrator abused its discretion by denying surviving spouse benefits under an ERISA retirement benefit plan to a participant’s domestic...more
On March 5, 2019, Chief Magistrate Judge Joseph C. Spero of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California ruled that United Behavioral Health (UBH), a subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group, violated its fiduciary...more
The Second Circuit held that plaintiffs’ allegations that the defendant suffered from a “categorical potential conflict of interest”—because it both funded the plan and was the claim’s decision-maker—did not affect the...more
This month's Friday Five brings a quartet of court of appeals decisions: a pair from the Ninth Circuit relating to standard of review, an Eighth Circuit decision upholding a mental illness limitation, and a Sixth Circuit case...more
In an opinion filed on January 15, 2019, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the district court’s ruling that UnitedHealth Group’s practice of recovering overpayments made to “out-of-network” providers from one plan by...more
Welcome to the first edition of ERISA & Employee Benefits Alert. Our ERISA and Managed Care Group will be providing curated insights and news concerning notable ERISA and managed care issues that highlight current or emerging...more
• The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit has affirmed a U.S. District Court's application of deferential standard to the review of an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) administrator's decision based on broad...more
Managing your plan’s claims procedures to avoid successful challenges requires careful attention to all of the requirements in the regulations and in the applicable plan’s or policy’s terms and continual review in light of...more
To reduce the cost of maintaining an ERISA plan and reduce the expense of ERISA litigation, it is helpful to have courts both apply a deferential standard of review and limit the review to the administrative record. If an...more
Even when a claims administrator approves a claim for disability benefits, its job is not done. That principle was again demonstrated in the recent case Owings v. United of Omaha Life Insurance Co., No. 16-3128 (10th Cir....more
The Fifth Circuit recently vacated a class action settlement that included unsecured and uncollateralized future payments to the plaintiffs, while providing a swift and complete payout of fees to class counsel. The case...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: In a strong decision for insurers, the Eighth Circuit affirmed summary judgment for the administrator, rejected plaintiff’s conflict of interest argument, and found that it was not arbitrary for the...more
In Ariana M. v. Humana Health Plan of Texas, Inc., No. 16-20174 (5th Cir. Apr. 21, 2017), the Firth Circuit concluded that Texas’ ban on discretionary clauses in certain insurance policies did not require a de novo review of...more
Editor's Overview - This month, we look at the implications of the two federal district court cases from California that applied the ban on discretionary clauses typically found in ERISA plans to self-insured plans. The...more
Insurance for long term disability – payments to an insured who is prevented from earning his or her income due to long term disability – is a fruitful field for litigation for many reasons. Though the insurance may be...more