California Insurance Litigation Blog

On July 21, 2010, President Obama signed into law the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (H.R. 4173).  The Act directs the U.S. Treasury Department to create a Federal Insurance Office ("FIO")  The FIO has the authority to monitor all aspects of the insurance industry, establish Federal policy on international insurance matters, serve as a liaison between the Federal government and the several States regarding insurance matters, and serve as an advisory to the Treasury regarding the export promotion of United States insurance products and services.  The scope of the FIO's authority extends to all lines of insurance, except health insurance.  Also excluded from the FIO's authority is long-term care insurance, except long-term care insurance that is included with life or annuity insurance components. 

This is a departure from an earlier bipartisan proposal by Congressmen Ed Royce (R-Calif.) and Melissa Bean (D-Ill.) that would have enacted a federal insurance charter designed to mandate a national framework of state based regulation or market conduct, licensing, the filing of new products and reinsurance. 

The FIO is seen as a "win" by many State Insurance Commissioners who had been advocating for closer collaboration with the federal government in the regulation of insurance companies. 

Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act

Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court handed ERISA plan participants a big victory when they decided the important ERISA disability case of Hardt v. Reliance Standard Life Insurance, __ U.S. __ (Decided May 24, 2010)(see our blog discussion here) holding that an ERISA plan participant may be able to collect attorneys’ fees from a plan or claim administrator without obtaining a judgment in the action.  It did not take long for the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to apply Hardt.  In Simonia v. Glendale Nissan/Infiniti Disability Plan, __ F.3d __ (9th Cir. June 24, 2010), the court rejected a plan participant’s claim for attorney’s fees.

In Simonia, Aleck Simonia became physically disabled due to a herniated disc.  He had disability insurance under his employer's group insurance plan, which was ultimately insured by the Hartford Insurance Co.  Hartford concluded that Simonia was no longer physically disabled but had a mental disorder subject to his ERISA plan's twelve-month payment limit.  Hartford also learned that Simonia had been awarded $1,551 per month in Social Security Disability Insurance (“SSDI”) benefits retroactively, which should have been offset against his payments from Hartford.  Thus, Hartford informed Simonia he would be receiving payments subject to the plan's twelve-month mental disorder limit and that he owed Hartford $22,310.

Simonia sued Hartford for improperly reclassifying his disability as a mental disorder.  Hartford filed a  counterclaim to recover its overpayment.  Simonia informed Hartford that the Social Security Administration had retroactively reduced his SSDI award, and he requested that Hartford recalculate the alleged overpayment.  The parties later settled the counterclaim and stipulated to its dismissal. Simonia did not prevail in his claims against Hartford for continuing benefits.  Simonia thereafter filed a motion seeking $63,745 in attorney’s fees because he “was successful as a counter-defendant in that the defendant dismissed its counterclaim.”

For most insurance litigation, the majority of the evidence used by both sides comes from the claim file, also known as the administrative record in ERISA cases.  The claim file represents the insurance carrier’s written record of its handling and processing of an insurance claim.  Obviously, this information is highly relevant whenever coverage or a claim is disputed.  Moreover, in the case of life, health, or disability insurance cases, the claim file will also be full of personal and confidential information such as medical records and social security numbers.

The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in an unpublished decision, addressed the question of whether documents reviewed by an independent medical examiner, but not by the plan administrator, was sufficient to satisfy the Plan’s obligation to consider all relevant documents. Sun Sun Lin v. Mellon Long Term Disability Plan, 2010 WL 1917305 (Decided May 13, 2010).

In Sun Sun Lin, the Mellon Long Term Disability Plan was administered by a Corporate Benefits Committee (“CBC”). The plaintiff, Sun Sun Lin (“Lin”), challenged the district court’s grant of summary judgment by arguing that CBC failed to give her a full and fair review of the denial of her claim for long term disability benefits. In making this argument, she relied on a statement from the Plan’s attorney “that the CBC did not directly consider those documents in making its determination to deny [Lin's] claim,” but did “‘indirectly’ consider[ ] these documents to the extent they were reviewed and considered by” an independent medical examiner retained by the CBC in its review of Lin’s appeal. The question before the court was whether the review by the independent examiner was sufficient.

As predicted in my April blog post, the U.S. Supreme Court today handed ERISA plan participants a big victory when they decided the important ERISA disability case of Hardt v. Reliance Standard Life Insurance, __ U.S. __ (Decided May 24, 2010) holding that an ERISA plan participant may be able to collect attorneys’ fees from a plan or claim administrator without obtaining a judgment in the action. 

In that case, Bridget Hardt filed suit against the plan’s disability insurer, arguing that Reliance Standard Life Insurance Co. wrongly denied her claim for long-term disability benefits.  The district court found that Reliance’s original decision denying benefits disregarded pertinent medical evidence in violation of ERISA and found that the decision was otherwise unsupported by substantial evidence. Based on those findings, the district court remanded the matter to Reliance for reconsideration, ordering it to make a new benefits determination, after which it finally granted the benefits due. The district court then awarded Hardt $39,149 in attorney fees.