Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/481/41/
Timestamp: 2018-08-17 22:38:14
Document Index: 240743945

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 502', '§ 1131', '§ 1133', '§ 502', '§ 502', '§ 502', '§ 409', '§ 502', '§ 301', '§ 514', '§ 1144']

Pilot Life Ins. Co. v. Dedeaux :: 481 U.S. 41 (1987) :: Justia US Supreme Court Center
Justia › US Law › US Case Law › US Supreme Court › Volume 481 › Pilot Life Ins. Co. v. Dedeaux
(b) Under the guidelines set forth in Metropolitan Life, respondent's causes of action under state decisional common law -- particularly the cause, presently asserted, based on the Mississippi law of bad faith -- do not fall under ERISA's saving clause, and thus are not excepted from
In 1980, Dedeaux instituted a diversity action against Pilot Life in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi. Dedeaux's complaint contained three counts: "Tortious Breach of Contract"; "Breach of Fiduciary Duties"; and "Fraud in the Inducement." App. 18-23. Dedeaux sought "[d]amages for failure to provide benefits under the insurance policy in a sum to be determined at the time of trial," "[g]eneral damages for mental and emotional distress and other incidental damages in the sum of $250,000.00," and "[p]unitive and exemplary damages in the
Allis-Chalmers Corp. v. Lueck, 471 U. S. 202, 471 U. S. 208 (1985), quoting Malone v. White Motor Corp., 435 U. S. 497, 435 U. S. 504 (1978), quoting Retail Clerks v. Schermerhorn, 375 U. S. 96, 375 U. S. 103 (1963). We have observed in the past that the express preemption
In Metropolitan Life, this Court, noting that the preemption and saving clauses "perhaps are not a model of legislative drafting," 471 U.S. at 471 U. S. 739, interpreted these clauses in relation to a Massachusetts statute that required minimum
Metropolitan Life, supra, at 471 U. S. 739, quoting Shaw v. Delta Air Lines, supra, at 463 U. S. 97. In particular, we have emphasized that the preemption clause is not limited to "state laws specifically designed
the practice is an integral part of the policy relationship
As early as 1915, the Mississippi Supreme Court had recognized that punitive damages were available in a contract case when "the act or omission constituting the breach of the contract amounts also to the commission of a tort." See Nood v. Moffett, 109 Miss. 757, 767, 69 So. 664, 666 (1915) (involving a physician's breach of a contract to attend to a woman at her approaching "accouchement"). In American Railway Express Co. v. Bailey, 142 Miss. 622, 631, 107 So. 761, 763 (1926), a case involving a failure of a finance company to deliver to the plaintiff the correct amount of money cabled to the plaintiff through the finance company's offices, the Mississippi Supreme Court explained that punitive damages could be available when the breach of contract was "attended by some intentional wrong, insult, abuse, or gross negligence, which amounts to an independent tort." In Standard Life Insurance Co. v. Veal, 354 So.2d 239 (1977), the Mississippi Supreme Court, citing D. L. Fair Lumber Co. v. Weems, 196 Miss. 201, 16 So.2d 770 (1944) (breach of contract was accompanied by "the breaking down and destruction of another's fence"), American Railway Express Co. v. Bailey, supra, and Hood v. Moffett, supra, upheld an award of punitive damages against a defendant insurance company for failure to pay on a credit life policy. Since Veal, the Mississippi Supreme Court has considered a large number of cases in which plaintiffs have sought punitive damages from insurance companies for failure to pay a claim under an insurance contract, and in a great many of these cases the court has used the identical formulation, first stated in Bailey, of what must "attend" the breach of contract in order for punitive
Neither do the McCarran-Ferguson Act factors support the assertion that the Mississippi law of bad faith "regulates insurance." Unlike the mandated-benefits law at issue in Metropolitan Life, the Mississippi common law of bad faith does not effect a spreading of policyholder risk. The state common law of bad faith may be said to concern "the policy relationship between the insurer and the insured. " The connection
Kelly v. Robinson, 479 U. S. 36, 479 U. S. 43 (1986), quoting Offshore Logistics, Inc. v. Tallentire, 477 U. S. 207, 477 U. S. 221 (1986) (quoting Mastro Plastics Corp. v. NLRB, 350 U. S. 270, 350 U. S. 285 (1956) (in turn quoting United States v. Heirs of Boisdore, 8 How. 113, 49 U. S. 122 (1849))). Because, in this case,
The civil enforcement scheme of § 502(a) is one of the essential tools for accomplishing the stated purposes of ERISA. [Footnote 3] The civil enforcement scheme is sandwiched between
two other ERISA provisions relevant to enforcement of ERISA and to the processing of a claim for benefits under an employee benefit plan. Section 501, 29 U.S.C. § 1131, authorizes criminal penalties for violations of the reporting and disclosure provisions of ERISA. Section 503, 29 U.S.C. § 1133, requires every employee benefit plan to comply with Department of Labor regulations on giving notice to any participant or beneficiary whose claim for benefits has been denied, and affording a reasonable opportunity for review of the decision denying the claim. Under the civil enforcement provisions of § 502(a), a plan participant or beneficiary may sue to recover benefits due under the plan, to enforce the participant's rights under the plan, or to clarify rights to future benefits. Relief may take the form of accrued benefits due, a declaratory judgment on entitlement to benefits, or an injunction against a plan administrator's improper refusal to pay benefits. A participant or beneficiary may also bring a cause of action for breach of fiduciary duty, and under this cause of action may seek removal of the fiduciary. §§ 502(a)(2), 409. In an action under these civil enforcement provisions, the court in its discretion may allow an award of attorney's fees to either party. § 502(g). See Massachusetts Mutual Life Ins. Co. v. Russell, 473 U. S. 134, 473 U. S. 147 (1985). In Russell, we concluded that ERISA's breach of fiduciary duty provision, § 409(a), 29 U.S.C.
The deliberate care with which ERISA's civil enforcement remedies were drafted and the balancing of policies embodied in its choice of remedies argue strongly for the conclusion that ERISA's civil enforcement remedies were intended to be exclusive. This conclusion is fully confirmed by the legislative history of the civil enforcement provision. The legislative history demonstrates that the preemptive force of § 502(a) was modeled after § 301 of the LMRA.
In Metropolitan Life Ins. Co. v. Massachusetts, 471 U.S. at 471 U. S. 746, this Court rejected an interpretation of the saving clause of ERISA's express preemption provisions, § 514(b) (2)(A), 29 U.S.C. § 1144(b)(2)(A), that saved from preemption
Oral Argument - January 21, 1987