Litigation pursuant to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (“ERISA”) is rather unique. Unlike most cases, ERISA disputes are based on a limited scope of permissible evidence. The range of that scope is ultimately dependent on which standard of review is employed by the courts. Typically, when the standard of review is abuse of discretion, the scope of admissible evidence is limited to what was before the claims administrator when the claims decision was made, i.e. the “administrative record.” The reason for this limited subset of evidence is based on the sole question before the court, namely “Did the claim administrative abuse its discretion in rendering its decision?” Obviously, evidence discovered or submitted after the claims decision was made would be irrelevant to that question, hence the narrow scope. However, when the standard of review is de novo, the question before the court changes to whether or not the claimant is entitled to benefits. In other words, it is simply whether or not the claimant is disabled. Consequently, this change in question also alters the realm of admissible evidence.
Recently, the court in Ermovick vs. Mitchell, Silberberg & Knump LLP Long Term Disability Plan, 2010 WL 3956819 (Decided October 8, 2010), addressed the question of whether evidence of procedural deficiencies should be considered in the context of a de novo review. The facts are relatively straight forward. James Ermovick worked as a word processor at the law firm of Mitchell, Silberberg & Knump. His claim for disability benefits was based on depression, anxiety and pain radiating in his back and neck due to myeloradiculopathy. Ermovick claimed to be totally disabled from any occupation while Prudential, the claims administrator, believed his disability to be temporary and therefore denied his benefits claim.
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