Opinion ID: 197450
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Contrasting Court Roles Because of Limits on Jurisdiction

Text: 57
Benefit Plan 58 With respect specifically to an issue regarding eligibility of a claimant for benefits, precedents recognize that district courts do not have expansive plenary jurisdiction to decide the merits of a claim anew if the benefit plan gives the administrator or fiduciary discretionary authority to determine eligibility for benefits or to construe the terms of the plan. Bellino v. Schlumberger Technologies, 944 F.2d 26, 29 (1st Cir.1991) (quoting Firestone, 489 U.S. at 115, 109 S.Ct. at 956). Thus, if an ERISA out-of-court decisionmaker is given some discretion, the court reviews at least some (if not all) aspects of the out-of-court decision only to determine whether that decision was arbitrary and capricious. This key point expressed in Bellino is entirely consistent with many earlier and later First Circuit decisions that recognize the authority of the court to be less deferential, or not deferential at all, of out-of-court decisions by fiduciaries to whom a benefit plan did not grant discretionary authority to decide the matter at issue. Smart v. Gillette Co. Long-Term Disability Plan, 70 F.3d 173, 181 (1st Cir.1995) (In ERISA cases ... court should scrutinize an ostensible waiver with care in order to ensure that it reflects the purposeful relinquishment of an employee's rights.); Hughes v. Boston Mut. Life Ins. Co., 26 F.3d 264, 267 (1st Cir.1994) (Where, as here, the administrator of an ERISA-regulated plan does not allege that it has discretion under the plan to interpret the terms of the insurance policy, judicial review of a denial of benefits entails no deference to the administrator's explanation of the plan....); Diaz, 13 F.3d at 456-58 (arbitrary and capricious standard of review applied to trustee rules promulgated pursuant to broad, discretionary authority granted to the trustee in the trust instrument); Rodriguez-Abreu v. Chase Manhattan Bank, N.A., 986 F.2d 580, 583-84 (1st Cir.1993) (de novo standard properly applied where the relevant plan document did not grant discretionary authority to the Plan Administrator and the Named Fiduciaries did not expressly delegate their discretionary authority to the Plan administrator); Allen v. Adage, Inc., 967 F.2d 695, 697-98 (1st Cir.1992) (where nothing in the Plan indicates that another approach is to be used, it is appropriate for a reviewing court to afford de novo review). 59
60 An inquiry that is in essence jurisdictional is an appropriate early step toward full understanding of the meaning of the constitutional, statutory, and decisional mandates regarding the scope of the authority of federal courts in a case involving judicial review of an out-of-court claims decision. 61 Article III courts and other federal courts are not courts of general jurisdiction. See, e.g., Owen Equip. & Erection Co. v. Kroger, 437 U.S. 365, 374, 98 S.Ct. 2396, 2403, 57 L.Ed.2d 274 (1978). Even when some source of subject-matter jurisdiction appears of record (by reason of complete diversity of citizenship, for example, or the dependence of a claim on some federal question), federal courts are not automatically authorized to adjudicate every kind of related claim a party wishes to have decided. Rather, except as to instances of jurisdiction over claims of unconstitutionality of legislation, limits on the scope of jurisdiction of federal courts (other than the Supreme Court of the United States) are partly statutory. E.g., Kokkonen v. Guardian Life Ins. Co. of America, 511 U.S. 375, 377, 114 S.Ct. 1673, 1675, 128 L.Ed.2d 391 (1994). 62 A central characteristic of federal jurisdiction is that it tends to be claim-based, and thus specific to claims, rather than case-based, and thus general to an entire case if the court has jurisdiction over any claim. See American Law Institute, Federal Judicial Code Revision Project, Tentative Draft No. 1, 33-34 (Apr. 8, 1997) (Commentary). The Reporter for this ALI Project, Professor John B. Oakley, in an introductory Memorandum to the Members of the Institute, identifies as an organizing principle used from an early stage of the history of this ALI Project, the observation that: 63 subject-matter jurisdiction of the federal district court operates on a 'claim-specific' basis that is concealed and confused by the 'action-specific' language of the basic statutory grants of original jurisdiction to the district courts. Id. at xvii. He adds: 64 .... Although the basic statutes purport to confer federal jurisdiction over particular types of 'civil actions,' 'cases,' 'proceedings,' and the like, they have been administered on a claim-specific rather than action-specific basis, with the law of supplemental jurisdiction functioning in the background as the mechanism for determining which claims joined to a particular action that do not directly involve the kinds of issues or parties within the scope of Article III are nonetheless within federal judicial power because of their relationship to other claims involving issues or parties that fall within Article III's criteria. 65 Id. at xviii. We interpret action, as used both in this passage and in a passage of the Firestone opinion, quoted above, as meaning civil action, not cause of action. Professor Oakley adds that these background themes are a part of the complex structure of federal jurisdiction, commonly recognized as involving constitutional, statutory, and decisional tiers of authorization and limitation. Id. at 36-45. 66 We conclude that a theme of claim-specific limitations on the scope of federal judicial power extends also to a distinction between plenary jurisdiction, in a broad sense including authority to decide anew on the merits, and a more confined type of jurisdiction over a specific type of claim within the court's jurisdiction. A district court's subject-matter jurisdiction over a claim may be solely for judicial review of an out-of-court decision on the merits of the claim. This kind of limitation is primarily statutory in origin. It may be implicit, for example, in a statutory authorization for judicial review over out-of-court substantive decisions (of many different types) made by governmental agencies, under provisions of the Administrative Procedure Act, 5 U.S.C. § 706(2)(A). Also, this kind of limitation may be implicit in statutory provisions for judicial review of special kinds of out-of-court substantive decisions made by private decisionmakers such as those acting under employee benefits plan, making decisions reviewable in this case under ERISA, 29 U.S.C. §§ 1132(a)(1)(B) and 1132(c). 67 In a regime characterized in large part by limited jurisdiction, a statutory authorization for judicial review of out-of-court decisions does not imply authorization for a court to expand its jurisdiction to a plenary authority to decide, itself, all genuinely disputable factual issues decisive of the merits of claims. This point applies both to a court's acting on its own initiative and to a court's acting upon a consensual request by the parties that a court accept an expansion of its jurisdiction. We say more about consensual requests in Part II.E, below. 68 Also, to understand fully a source of authority regarding the scope of a court's jurisdiction when judicially reviewing an out-of-court claims decision, one must take account of the distinctive nature of a court's role in judicial review, in contrast with the role of a court in other civil actions generally. 69 A civil action for judicial review of an out-of-court decision is fundamentally different from a paradigm civil action asserting tort, contract, or property claims, or even alleged rights to equitable or declaratory relief. In cases of judicial review, ordinarily no right to jury trial is involved, and no need or authority exists to make factual findings of the kind regularly made by a jury, or by the trial judge in a nonjury trial. 70 If a need exists for deciding disputable factual issues in the course of judicial review of an out-of-court decision on the merits of a benefits claim, typically that need is associated with a dispute about the record. We turn next to considering disputes of this kind.C. Deciding Disputes About the Record 71 1. The Contrast Between Disputes About the Record and 72 Disputes About the Merits 73 Deciding disputable factual issues about what is or is not properly a part of the record for judicial review is fundamentally different from deciding disputable factual issues going to the merits of a benefits claim. 74 The out-of-court decision under judicial review in this case was, or at least in ordinary circumstances should have been, a decision on the merits. The standard of judicial review of that decision, in whatever way it may be phrased and described, is to some extent deferential in the sense that the reviewing court is not to set aside a factual finding of historical fact for which the record on which the decision was made contained adequate support. 75 Ordinarily the deference to a decision on the merits extends also to deference to an evaluative inference on which the decision on the merits depends, at least unless the inference is a mixed-legal-factual inference. Just as appellate courts tend to give somewhat less deference to a trial court's mixed-legal-factual inference--see, e.g., AIDS Action Comm. of Mass., Inc. v. Massachusetts Bay Transp. Auth., 42 F.3d 1, 7 (1st Cir.1994) (appellate court accords significant deference to trial court's factual determinations and most of its resolutions of mixed fact/law issues, letting them stand unless they are clearly erroneous, but engages in de novo review of trial court's application of a First Amendment standard to the facts of the particular case); In re Extradition of Howard, 996 F.2d 1320, 1328 (1st Cir.1993) (The standard of review applicable to mixed questions usually depends upon where they fall along the degree-of-deference continuum; the more fact-dominated the question, the more likely it is that the trier's resolution of it will be accepted unless shown to be clearly erroneous.)--so likewise a court engaged in judicial review of an out-of-court decision may tend to give less deference to an inference-based decision that appears possibly to have been influenced by a mistake about the existence or meaning of an applicable legal rule or about how the legal rule applies in the particular instance. In applying such a less deferential standard, however, a reviewing court is not authorized to make, itself, a new decision replacing every factual finding of the out-of-court decisionmaker that goes to the merits and is challenged. The judicial review of the decision on the merits continues to be to some extent deferential. 76 In contrast, the trial judge's decision of a dispute about the record is typically not deferential. 77 A factual dispute about the record of an out-of-court decision of a claim under an employee benefits plan may involve a contention, by either party, that the record as produced by the decisionmaking entity contains documents or descriptions of non-documentary evidence not considered before the challenged decision was made, or documents or descriptions of evidence not properly considered (which one party or the other asks the trial court to strike or otherwise treat as irrelevant to judicial review). Obversely, the dispute may involve a contention that the record for the out-of-court decision should have included, and did not, additional materials (which one party or the other asks the trial court to rule must be taken into account). 78 If, after taking such a supplementation of the record into account, the trial judge determines that, by reason of departures from fair process, the challenged out-of-court decision cannot be affirmed, one obvious possibility is an order of remand for reconsideration by the committee or other entity that made the procedurally flawed out-of-court decision. 79 That form of remedy fits. Concerning a court's obligation generally, in framing relief, to fashion a remedy that fits and does not overburden a party, see, e.g., Califano v. Yamasaki, 442 U.S. 682, 702, 99 S.Ct. 2545, 2558, 61 L.Ed.2d 176 (1979) (injunctive relief should be no more burdensome to the defendant than necessary to provide complete relief to the plaintiffs); E.E.O.C. v. Astra U.S.A., Inc., 94 F.3d 738, 746 (1st Cir.1996) (same). 80 First, the remedy for the departure from fair process is easily framed to fit within the authorized scope of judicial review. Second, the nature of the remedy matches the nature of the error. Moreover, if the error was solely an error of the committee or other deciding entity, any other form of order is likely not to fit because it tends to place an undeserved burden or disadvantage on one party or the other. 81 We leave to be considered in Parts III.C and III.D of this opinion a defense contention in this case that if the record failed to contain evidence that would have supported plaintiff's claim, plaintiff failed to use her available opportunities to proffer more evidence. 82 To complete an explanation of the contrast between deciding disputes about the merits and deciding disputes about the record, we must take account of legal authority bearing on who is to decide a dispute about the record and by what procedures. 83 2. Who Decides? 84 As to who is to decide a dispute about the record, we canvass three possibilities (and variations on each) that are apparent in this case: (1) the out-of-court decisionmaker on remand from the district court; (2) the court or courts where judicial review occurs; and (3) a jury (or trial judge as finder of fact in a nonjury proceeding), guided on the law by the trial judge's rulings, those rulings being subject to correction on appeal. 85 The first possibility (remand to the out-of-court decisionmaker) may sometimes be appropriate, but is likely to result in delay, and perhaps very extended delay and expense if the dispute is not resolved to the satisfaction of all interested parties, and promptly. That kind of delay is inconsistent with the objective of providing workers and their dependents an inexpensive and expeditious method of resolving disputes over benefits claimed under an employee benefits plan. This is one of the multiple objectives underlying ERISA. See, e.g., Quesinberry v. Life Ins. Co. of North America, 987 F.2d 1017, 1023-1025 (4th Cir.1993) (citing Perry v. Simplicity Eng'g, 900 F.2d 963, 966 (6th Cir.1990)). 86 The availability of the third possibility--jury trial--in ERISA cases is a matter on which many courts have spoken but in ways that may reasonably be understood as creating some unresolved conflicts. E.g., compare Turner v. Fallon Community Health Plan, Inc., 953 F.Supp. 419 (D.Mass.1997), with Padilla De Higginbotham v. Worth Publishers, Inc., 820 F.Supp. 48 (D.P.R.1993). We do not speak further to this conflict in this opinion, for the reason that in any event the record before us fails to show any disputable issue of fact appropriate for submission to a jury in this case, as we explain below. 87 The use of a jury to resolve disputes about the record for judicial review of out-of-court decisions in this case would be fundamentally inconsistent with the regime of limited jurisdiction of federal courts. Jurisdiction for judicial review cannot be expanded to encompass a jury role inconsistent with limitations on the court's jurisdiction. The jury is an arm of the court, and an arm that performs only a designated court function. In a case before the court solely for judicial review of an out-of-court decision, the jurisdiction of the court as a whole, including the jury, is limited to the function of determining whether the out-of-court decision is to be affirmed, or is to be set aside as arbitrary or capricious, or is to be reconsidered by the committee or other entity designated to decide the merits. 88 A recent decision of the Supreme Court in a very different context helps to explain both the rejection of this third possibility and the distinctive nature of the role of the trial judge in deciding disputes about the record as distinguished from disputes about the merits. That context involved a dispute about who decides an issue of interpretation of a patent claim as to which reasonable persons familiar with both the intricacies of patent law and all the relevant circumstances of the particular case might differ. Justice Souter, in the opinion of the Court, observed that a trial judge is better positioned than a jury to decide this kind of factual issue. Markman v. Westview Instruments, Inc., --- U.S. ----, ----, 116 S.Ct. 1384, 1387, 134 L.Ed.2d 577 (1996) (Since evidence of common law practice at the time of the Framing does not entail application of the Seventh Amendment's jury guarantee to the construction of the [patent] claim document, we must look elsewhere to characterize this determination of meaning in order to allocate it as between court or jury. Existing precedent, the relative interpretive skills of judges and juries, and statutory policy considerations all favor allocating construction issues to the court.). 89 Much of the reasoning of the Court in Westview applies to the role of a trial judge in deciding disputes about the record for judicial review. Compared with judges, jurors typically have less experience and training relevant to competence to review decisions of others with an appropriate degree of deference while at the same time assuring no misunderstanding or misapplication of governing law. And, historically, juries have had no part in judicial review of out-of-court decisions. 90 Concerning factors bearing upon who is better positioned to decide, in determining whether responsibility for deciding a factual dispute of a distinctive kind should be allocated to juries or instead to judges, the Westview opinion cited other Court decisions made in other contexts, including Miller v. Fenton, 474 U.S. 104, 114, 106 S.Ct. 445, 451, 88 L.Ed.2d 405 (1985) (when an issue falls somewhere between a pristine legal standard and a simple historical fact, the fact/law distinction at times has turned on a determination that, as a matter of the sound administration of justice, one judicial actor is better positioned than another to decide the issue in question.). Other decisions in the 1980s and 1990s have added more illustrations that, by analogy, reinforce the conclusion we reach in this case about the role of the judge in judicial review. See, e.g., Thompson v. Keohane, --- U.S. ----, 116 S.Ct. 457, 133 L.Ed.2d 383 (1995) (habeas petitioner serving a sentence under a state conviction had confessed, during a two-hour tape-recorded session at the Alaska state trooper headquarters, to killing his former wife; federal district court denied his petition for habeas relief on the ground that the trooper had obtained his confession without giving Miranda warnings; the Ninth Circuit affirmed on the ground that the state court's ruling that the accused was not in custody for Miranda purposes was a fact determination as to which § 2254(d) establishes a presumption of correctness; this Court has classified as 'factual issues' within § 2254(d)'s compass questions extending beyond the determination of 'what happened' ; [t]his category notably includes: competence to stand trial; and juror impartiality; [w]hile these issues encompass more than 'basic, primary, or historical facts,' their resolution depends heavily on the trial court's appraisal of witness credibility and demeanor; [t]his Court has reasoned that a trial court is better positioned to make decisions of this genre, and has therefore accorded the judgment of the jurist-observer 'presumptive weight' ; even so, we independently review the state in-custody determination because [c]lassifying 'in custody' as a determination qualifying for independent review potentially may guide police, unify precedent, and stabilize the law); Bose Corp. v. Consumers Union of United States, Inc., 466 U.S. 485, 501 n. 17, 104 S.Ct. 1949, 1960 n. 17, 80 L.Ed.2d 502 (1984) (A finding of fact in some cases is inseparable from the principles through which it was deduced. At some point, the reasoning by which a fact is 'found' crosses the line between application of those ordinary principles of logic and common experience which are ordinarily entrusted to the finder of fact into the realm of a legal rule upon which the reviewing court must exercise its own independent judgment.). See also U.S. Term Limits, Inc. v. Thornton, 514 U.S. 779, 920, 115 S.Ct. 1842, 1875, 131 L.Ed.2d 881 (1995) (Thomas, J., dissenting, joined by Rehnquist, C.J., O'Connor, J., and Scalia, J.) (citing Bose and declaring: In certain areas, indeed, this Court apparently gives quite little deference to the initial factfinder, but rather 'exercise[s] its own independent judgment' about the factual conclusions that should be drawn from the record.).
91 We turn next to considering how a trial judge may go about performing the function of deciding disputes about the record.(a) Non-jury Trial 92 Precedents support a district court's holding a non-jury trial for distinctive and limited purposes associated with judicial review. An example is an opinion of Justice (then Judge) Breyer for the First Circuit in the context of judicial review of a decision of a governmental agency. E.g., Valley Citizens for a Safe Environment v. Aldridge, 886 F.2d 458, 460 (1st Cir.1989) (Breyer, J.) (It could happen that a particular instance of judicial review of an EIS raises a 'genuine' and 'material' dispute of facts that requires a trial: Did the agency know, for example, about some important matter that the EIS ignored? ... However desirable this kind of evidentiary supplementation as an aid to understanding highly technical, environmental matters, its use is discretionary with the reviewing court.) (citations omitted). The practice seems equally applicable to judicial review of out-of-court decisions of private actors, such as the Committees whose decisions are under judicial review in this case. 93 Even when a district court proceeds with a non-jury trial of this kind, or a proceeding to take evidence on motion, and determines that it is necessary to make some finding with respect to some historical fact (or to draw some reasoned inference from evidence) as to which a genuine dispute exists, ordinarily that factual finding made by the trial judge concerns matters bearing on fairness of the process by which the out-of-court decision was made and not the merits of the claim. A determination by a court that it has jurisdiction to perform this distinctive function does not imply that it must also have jurisdiction to find facts relevant to the merits. 94 (b) Evidence on Motion 95 Also, with respect to preparing for ruling on a pending motion, a trial judge has, under Federal Rules, explicit authority to convene a kind of evidentiary proceeding that differs from taking evidence at trial under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 43(a). 96 Evidence on Motions. When a motion is based on facts not appearing of record the court may hear the matter on affidavits presented by the respective parties, but the court may direct that the matter be heard wholly or partly on oral testimony or deposition. 97 Fed.R.Civ.P. 43(d). This procedural authority, however, regarding the manner of taking evidence, does not expand the trial court's jurisdiction. Rules of procedure apply to how the court may go about performing whatever function and role it is assigned by constitutional, statutory, and decisional law governing the court's jurisdiction. 98 Federal Rules of Civil Procedure do not purport to expand the court's jurisdiction from a role of judicial review to a role of plenary adjudication. This is a proposition inherent in the general aim that a court system's procedural rules be focused on fair and efficient procedures rather than either jurisdictional or substantive law. And it is a proposition inherent in the claim-based rather than case-based theme of federal subject-matter jurisdiction, explained in Part II.B above. 99 (c) An Issue on Which Decision is Reserved 100 We have not decided, and need not decide today, whether a court, when reviewing a benefits determination, must restrict itself to the record as considered by the decisionmaker who interpreted the employee benefits plan. See Mongeluzo v. Baxter Travenol Long Term Disability Ben. Plan, 46 F.3d 938 (9th Cir.1995); Quesinberry v. Life Ins. Co. of North America, 987 F.2d 1017 (4th Cir.1993); Luby v. Teamsters Health, Welfare, and Pension Trust Funds, 944 F.2d 1176 (3d Cir.1991); compare Davidson v. Prudential Ins. Co. of America, 953 F.2d 1093, 1095 (8th Cir.1992). 101 Rather, we simply emphasize for clarity that making factual findings about what is or is not properly a part of the record for judicial review is fundamentally different from asserting plenary authority to decide the merits of a benefits claim. 102 As stated above, a trial court may take evidence on motion or convene a nonjury trial in order to develop a record suitable for judicial review of a challenged out-of-court decision. Also, a court may convene either of these kinds of proceedings to determine whether the record on which the out-of-court decision was made is complete and, if not, what supplementation is appropriate. That the trial court has some range of discretion in this respect is reinforced by analogy to precedent. For example, a Fourth Circuit decision, calling attention to limitations on the district court's discretion, also declares that the court has some range of discretion to take evidence. 103 [W]e continue to believe that the purposes of ERISA described in our Berry opinion warrant significant restraints on the district court's ability to allow evidence beyond what was presented to the administrator. In our view, the most desirable approach to the proper scope of de novo review under ERISA is one which balances these multiple purposes of ERISA. Consequently, we adopt a scope of review that permits the district court in its discretion to allow evidence that was not before the plan administrator. The district court should exercise its discretion, however, only when circumstances clearly establish that additional evidence is necessary to conduct an adequate de novo review of the benefit decision. 104 Quesinberry, 987 F.2d at 1025. 105
106 Proceeding in the way just suggested may be better, for very pragmatic reasons, than hearing and deciding a motion or cross-motions for summary judgment. See, e.g., Charlton Memorial Hosp. v. Foxboro Co., 818 F.Supp. 456 (D.Mass.1993). Summary judgment procedures were designed primarily for prompt and fair determination of factual issues of the kind that go to the merits and would be decided by the jury in a jury trial if genuinely in dispute. Under summary judgment procedure, the movant has the opportunity and burden of making a showing that no material factual issue is genuinely in dispute. The opponent has the opportunity and burden of proffering admissible evidence sufficient to support a factual finding favorable to the challenged claim, Fed.R.Civ.P. 56. Under Rule 56 and local rules implementing its mandates, a litigant who fails to take advantage of its opportunity by a timely proffer of evidence may be procedurally precluded from doing so later on grounds concerned with fair process. E.g., Mas Marques v. Digital Equip. Corp., 637 F.2d 24, 29-30 (1st Cir.1980). 107 Invoking summary judgment procedures for factual issues of the kind that do not go to the merits and would not be submitted to a jury in any event is likely to produce misunderstanding and confusion about when and how the factual dispute is to be resolved. See Charlton Memorial Hosp., 818 F.Supp. at 53-54. If the trial judge needs to hear and consider evidence to be prepared to decide the dispute over a factual issue bearing upon the record for judicial review, Rule 56 constraints do not apply, though the trial judge has discretion to invoke like procedures. Thus, no formal or procedural barrier exists to the trial judge's deciding disputed factual issues about the record, in proceedings upon a pretrial motion rather than at trial. Such a pretrial motion need not be labeled as one for summary judgment. If giving the motion that label leads trial lawyers or the trial judge to assume that the judge can never decide before trial if a finding with respect to a genuinely disputable fact must be made, this flawed assumption reflects a misunderstanding that is likely to create confusion and delay. If, in any event, the decision of a factual dispute about the record is to be made by the judge, not by a jury, the trial judge is not required to await trial. Instead, the trial judge may exercise discretion about the method of proceeding, taking advantage of the opportunity for flexibility about scheduling hearings in preparation for the decision about the record. 108
109 Of course, the trial judge should (and absent some ground of preclusion, must), before deciding a disputable factual issue that may be decisive of a dispute about the record, give parties a fair opportunity to discover and present relevant evidence bearing upon the issue. Ordinarily it is a good practice to do this by an order of record that clearly specifies the time within which any proffer is to be made, and thus reduces any risk of misunderstanding. 110 Once this requirement of fair process has been satisfied, ordinarily it is in the public interest and the interest of the parties that factual disputes of the kind that are to be decided by the trial judge, and in no event by a jury, be decided sooner rather than later. Exceptional circumstances of a particular case may make deferral appropriate, however, and this opinion is not to be interpreted as stating any hard-edged rule of practice in this respect. We have called attention to these matters in this opinion solely for the purpose of clarifying the nature of judicial review in respects that appear to have generated misunderstandings. 111 D. Independent Claims and Overlapping Elements 1. Various Types of Independent Claims 112 For completeness, we take note of another source of potential misunderstanding, even though it does not apply to this case. In some instances, an independent claim over which a district court does have plenary jurisdiction for trial on the merits may include, among the elements of that claim or a defense to it, a factual issue that is the same or almost the same as some factual element of a claim for benefits under an employee benefits plan, decisions regarding which are subject to judicial review rather than trial on the merits. In such an instance, the court has jurisdiction to try the independent claim, even though the court's role in relation to the plan benefits claim is limited to judicial review. Some potential illustrations are identified immediately below. 113 2. Forbidden Retaliatory Motive or Other Discriminatory Animus 114 An independent claim may arise when a party contends that gender or racial animus was a motive for termination of employment in retaliation for previous protected conduct of the employee in asserting that conditions of employment were discriminatory. If (1) the party making such a contention demands a jury trial and proffers sufficient evidence to show a genuine dispute of material fact, and (2) jury trial of the independent claim is appropriate under the law governing trial of that claim, the trial judge has two very distinct and materially different responsibilities. One is to determine, as a matter of law, whether the proffered evidence is sufficient, if credited by the jury, to support the independent claim of discriminatory termination of employment and, if so, to submit that claim to the jury by an appropriate charge and verdict form. The trial judge's other responsibility is to perform the function of judicial review of the challenged out-of-court decision of the claim for benefits under the employee benefits plan. For the reasons explained in Parts II.B and II.C above, this responsibility continues to be performed without participation of the jury, even though the independent claim that is before the court in the same civil action is tried to a jury. 115 3. Violation of Obligation to Provide Plan Information 116 Another kind of claim that, in appropriate circumstances, might be treated as an independent claim is a claim of violation of the ERISA requirement of production of plan information, 29 U.S.C. § 432(c). We do not probe this possibility in this case, because Recupero has not claimed a violation of this provision; instead, as explained in Part III.D of this opinion, below, she has claimed a violation of notice requirements, with respect to her opportunity to challenge a committee decision, under 29 U.S.C. § 1133. 117 4. Overlapping Components of an Independent Claim and a Claim Under Judicial Review 118 It is possible that in some circumstances some factual component of an independent claim, or the measure of recovery if that claim is proved, will closely coincide with a component decisive of the merits of the out-of-court decision that is under judicial review. If this happens, a host of debatable issues may exist concerning claim or issue preclusion, the right to jury trial, and procedural rules and practices bearing on case management in the district court. 119 No independent claim was alleged in the complaint in this case, however, and we do not undertake to address any of the added complexities that arise from joinder of a claim for judicial review and some independent claim. This case presents only a question as to scope of jurisdiction in a more typical setting of judicial review of an out-of-court benefits decision. 120 E. Consensual Arrangement for Claims Determinations 121 In this case, the parties assigned to the EBC in the first instance, and to the EBRC in the second instance, the function of making decisions about the merits of individual claims to benefits under the plan. This kind of consensual arrangement is legally permissible. See Firestone, 489 U.S. at 115, 109 S.Ct. at 956-57. 122 Here, however, each party is in essence asking this court to construe plan provisions as consensually overriding constitutional and statutory limits on the jurisdiction of the courts, or to hold that an opposing party is estopped or precluded from asserting that the plan provisions do not authorize plenary consideration of plaintiff-appellant's claims on the merits. Included is the request that the district court make factual findings on any genuinely disputable issues material to the outcome on the merits. 123 When the law authorizes parties to make their own consensual arrangement for deciding individual claims for benefits, ordinarily the parties may prescribe their own set of rules about how decisions are to be made, as long as they do not transgress prescribed legal limits on the scope and nature of consensual arrangements. E.g., Mitsubishi Motors Corp. v. Soler Chrysler-Plymouth, Inc., 473 U.S. 614, 628-39, 105 S.Ct. 3346, 3354-60, 87 L.Ed.2d 444 (1985)(parties' agreement to arbitrate anti-trust claims is enforceable absent a showing of circumstances that would warrant setting aside the forum selection clause). If, however, the parties attempt by their consent to expand the scope of a district court's jurisdiction beyond that authorized by law, their attempt is legally unenforceable in this respect for the reasons explained in Parts II.B and II.C of this opinion. 124 F. Summary of Conclusions Regarding Scope of Jurisdiction 125 The constitutionally and statutorily limited jurisdiction of federal courts cannot be expanded by a stipulation or joint request of the parties that the courts become their privately-appointed alternative to the method of adjudication available to them under law. Ordinarily, claims benefit determinations of consensually designated private decisionmakers on whom plan provisions confer authority to exercise discretion are subject to judicial review under an arbitrary and capricious standard, but not to plenary determinations on the merits. 126 In contrast, the decision of disputes about the record for judicial review ordinarily are within the scope of the district court's jurisdiction, and the trial judge's role ordinarily extends to deciding factual as well as legal components of such a dispute about the record. 127 Independent claims in addition to a claim for judicial review may present added complexities, but we need not and do not address these matters because no independent claim is asserted in this case. 128 With these fundamental characteristics of the legal system as background, one may locate the legal and factual issues of a particular civil action in the larger legal landscape. In the remainder of this opinion, we consider each of the material contentions of the parties regarding the precise way in which this controversy has proceeded both before and after the filing of the civil action in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts.