Opinion ID: 2362997
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: ERISA'S EXCLUSIVE REMEDY SCHEME v. THE SAVING CLAUSE

Text: The Catheys assert that even if their claims relate to an employee benefit plan, they are saved from preemption by section 1144(b)(2)(A), the saving clause. The saving clause saves from preemption state laws which regulate insurance. Metropolitan Life, 471 U.S. at 737,105 S.Ct. at 2388; Pilot Life, 481 U.S. at 47, 107 S.Ct. at 1553. However, even the saving clause cannot save from preemption a state law that provides remedies not provided by ERISA. In Pilot Life, the Supreme Court announced that ERISA's civil enforcement remedies were intended to be exclusive. 481 U.S. at 54, 107 S.Ct. at 1556. Pilot Life involved allegations of improper processing of a claim for benefits. In holding that the plaintiff's claim for breach of the Mississippi common-law duty of good faith and fair dealing was preempted by ERISA, the Court stated, [t]he policy choices reflected in the inclusion of certain remedies and the exclusion of others under the federal scheme would be completely undermined if ERISA-plan participants and beneficiaries were free to obtain remedies under state law that Congress rejected in ERISA. Id.; see also McClendon, 111 S.Ct. at 484-85; Mutual Life Ins. Co. v. Yampol, 840 F.2d 421, 425 (7th Cir.1988). Even if these insurance code provisions and the DTPA provisions were subject to the saving clause, the Court's opinions in Pilot Life and McClendon held that Congress intended all suits alleging improper claims processing be governed only by ERISA. McClendon, 111 S.Ct. at 485; Pilot Life, 481 U.S. at 52-54, 107 S.Ct. at 1555-56. Section 16 of article 21.21 and article 3.62 of the Insurance Code and section 17.50(a)(4) of the DTPA provide recovery that was not included under ERISA. The Court has decided that ERISA's civil enforcement scheme could not be supplemented by state law remedies. Therefore, a statutory remedy for improper claims processing is not available against an ERISA plan or its administrator.