Source: http://or.findacase.com/research/wfrmDocViewer.aspx/xq/fac.20150317_0000309.DOR.htm/qx
Timestamp: 2017-01-19 02:24:09
Document Index: 714028371

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 1001', '§ 1132', '§ 1132', '§ 1133', '§ 1133', '§ 1133', '§ 2560', '§ 1104']

| Spence v. Union Security Insurance Co.
Spence v. Union Security Insurance Co.
MATTHEW SPENCE, Plaintiff,v.UNION SECURITY INSURANCE COMPANY, dba ASSURANT EMPLOYEE BENEFITS Defendant.
Defendant Union Security Insurance Company ("Union Security") moves to dismiss Plaintiff Matthew Spence's ("Spence") Amended Complaint with prejudice as barred by the contractual limitations period. Before Oral argument, plaintiffs counsel moved to continue oral argument, ECF No. 25, and to withdraw as counsel, ECF No. 27. The motion to withdraw is GRANTED. As oral argument is unnecessary, the motion to postpone is now moot. Turning to the merits of the motion to dismiss, because Union Security failed to provide Spence adequate notice of his right to bring a civil action following his final administrative appeal, Union Security's Motion to Dismiss, ECF No.9, is DENIED.
Spence became disabled on October 1, 2010, and eventually filed for Long Term Disability ("LTD") benefits on May 10, 2012. Spence's application for LTD benefits was denied on August 23, 2012, and Spence appealed the denial of his LTD benefits on February 1, 2013. Spence's LTD benefits were again denied on April 2, 2013, and Spence requested a final administrative review on September 30, 2013. Union Security denied Spence's final appeal in a letter dated November 5, 2013, and stated, "The Appeals process has now been completed. As you were previously advised, this is the last administrative level of appeal available, and Mr. Spence's file is now closed." ECF No. 14; Ex. Bat 22.
On October 10, 2014, Spence brought this action pursuant to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, 29 U.S.C. § 1001 et. seq. ("ERISA"), seeking unpaid LTD benefits pursuant to the terms of his group LTD plan under 29 U.S.C. § 1132(a)(1)(B). Plaintiff seeks these remedies, plus his costs and attorney fees, pursuant to 29 U.S.C. § 1132(e)(1), (f), and (g), as well as ORS 742.061.
Spence brought this action more than three years from the commencement date of the three-year contractual limitation[2] The issue for this Court is whether Union Security's failure to substantially comply with 29 U.S.C. § 1133 equitably tolls the contractual limitations period between Union Security's final adverse benefits determination and the initial filing of this action. Because Union Security's final adverse benefits determination letter failed to advise Spence of his right to bring a civil action, or the time in which to do so, I find that Spence's Amended Complaint is timely.
I. Final Adverse Benefit Determination Letter
29 U.S.C. § 1133 governs adverse benefit determination letters. It authorizes the Secretary of Labor to establish regulations explaining the meaning of the statute and requires that the statute be applied "[i]n accordance with regulations of the Secretary." Moyer v. Metro. Life Ins. Co., 762 F.3d 503, 505 (6th Cir. 2014) (quoting 29 U.S.C. § 1133). The regulations require that the plan administrator must provide notification of "any adverse benefit determination" and include: "[a] description of the plan's review procedures and the time limits applicable to such procedures, including a statement of the claimant's right to bring a civil action... following an adverse benefit determination on review[.]" 29 C.P.R. § 2560.503-1.
An ERISA fiduciary must at all times "discharge [its] duties with respect to a plan solely in the interest of the participants and beneficiaries." 29 U.S.C. § 1104(a)(1). The claimant's right to bring a civil action is included as a part of those procedures for which applicable time limits must be provided. Moyer, 762 F.3d at 505. See also Solien v. Raytheon Long Term Disability Plan #590, No. CV 07-456 TUC DCB, 2008 WL 2323915, at *7 (D. Ariz. June 2, 2008) ("Judicial review is an appeal procedure for an adverse benefit determination and is therefore a part of the claim procedures covered by these regulations, especially when the time limit for filing a judicial action is established contractually by the Plan."). A plan administrator does not act "solely in the interest of the participants and beneficiaries, " if it does not bring to the claimant's attention the plan's time-limit requirements for all review procedures, including the right to sue under ERISA, because an untimely request forecloses all external review of the claim. Id. at 8.
When a benefits termination notice fails to explain the proper steps for appeal, the plan's time bar is not triggered. White v. Jacobs Eng'g Group Long Term Disability Plan, 896 F.2d 344, 351 (9th Cir. 1989). The statutory mandate to plan administrators to "afford a reasonable opportunity to any participant whose claim for benefits has been ...