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524us1$75Z 02-18-99 19:35:21 PAGES OPINPGT

74

OCTOBER TERM, 1997

Syllabus

GEISSAL, beneficiary and representative of the
ESTATE OF GEISSAL, DECEASED v. MOORE
MEDICAL CORP. et al.

certiorari to the united states court of appeals for
the eighth circuit

No. 97–689. Argued April 29, 1998—Decided June 8, 1998

The Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985 (COBRA)
amended the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974
(ERISA) to permit a beneﬁciary of an employer’s group health plan to
elect continuing coverage when he might otherwise lose that beneﬁt
because of a “qualifying event,” such as the termination of employment.
When respondent Moore Medical Corporation ﬁred James Geissal, it told
him that COBRA gave him the right to elect continuing coverage under
Moore’s health plan. He so elected, but six months later, Moore told
him that he was not entitled to COBRA beneﬁts because on his date of
election he was already covered by a group plan through his wife’s em-
ployer, Trans World Airlines (TWA). Geissal ﬁled suit against respond-
ents (collectively, Moore), claiming, inter alia, that Moore was violating
COBRA by renouncing an obligation to provide continuing coverage.
He died while this suit was pending, and his wife replaced him as plain-
tiff. The Magistrate granted partial summary judgment to Moore, con-
cluding that an employee with coverage under another group health plan
on the date he elects COBRA coverage is ineligible for COBRA cover-
age under 29 U. S. C. § 1162(2)(D)(i), which allows an employer to cancel
such coverage as of “[t]he date on which the qualiﬁed beneﬁciary ﬁrst
becomes, after the date of the election . . . covered under any other
group health plan.” The Eighth Circuit afﬁrmed.

Held: An employer may not deny COBRA continuation coverage under
its health plan to an otherwise eligible beneﬁciary because he is covered
under another group health plan at the time he elects COBRA cover-
age. Pp. 79–87.

(a) Section 1162(2)(D)(i) speaks in terms of “becom[ing] covered,” an
event that is signiﬁcant only if it “ﬁrst” occurs “after the date of the
election.” Because James Geissal was a beneﬁciary of the TWA plan
before he elected COBRA coverage, he did not “ﬁrst become” covered
under the TWA plan after the date of election, and Moore could not cut