California Insurance Litigation Blog

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... More

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... More

The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments yesterday in the important ERISA disability case of Hardt v. Reliance Standard Life Insurance (09-448).  In that case, Bridget Hardt filed suit, 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... More