Opinion ID: 77442
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Disability Award

Text: 22 UNUM contends that the district court erred in awarding Billings disability benefits due to Meniere's Disease because its findings of fact regarding the severity and predictability of Billings's episodes are clearly erroneous. Specifically, UNUM argues that the district court's findings of fact are clearly erroneous because it ignored inconsistent and contradictory evidence regarding the effects of Billings's disease. UNUM asserts that the presumption afforded to the district court that it is in the superior position to make credibility determinations is undermined in this case by the twenty-two month delay between the last day of trial and the district court's entry of findings of fact and conclusions of law. Alternatively, UNUM challenges the sufficiency of the evidence supporting the award of benefits through the last day of trial up to the day the district court entered judgment twenty-two months later. We are not persuaded by UNUM's arguments. 23 Based on the district court's credibility determinations of Billings's testimony, it found that Billings was unable to perform the material duties of his job as a result of Meniere's Disease, and thus was disabled under the terms of the policy. The district court stated that its credibility determination was based on its observations of Billings during his testimony, the corroboration of his testimony by his treating physician and family members, and evidence which included contemporaneous notes regarding his illness that he documented in his calendars. It is well-established that, 24 [a] finding [of fact] is clearly erroneous and reversible under Rule 52(a) only when the reviewing court on the entire evidence is left with a definite and firm conviction that a mistake has been committed. If the district court's findings of fact are plausible in light of the record viewed in its entirety, the court of appeals must accept them even if it is convinced that had it been sitting as the trier of fact, it would have weighed the evidence differently. 25 Childrey v. Bennett, 997 F.2d 830, 833 (11th Cir.1993) (citations and internal quotation marks omitted). Upon careful review of the record as a whole, we are not left with a definite and firm conviction that a mistake has been committed. Id. We will not re-weigh the evidence as UNUM essentially requests. Moreover, the twenty-two month delay alone does not undercut the presumption that the district court is in the best position to make credibility determinations. Accordingly, we conclude that the district court's findings of fact are not clearly erroneous. 26 Furthermore, we are not persuaded by UNUM's alternative argument that the award of disability benefits through the last day of trial up to the day the district court entered judgment twenty-two months later was not supported by sufficient evidence. UNUM contends that the district court's award of benefits was not supported by record evidence because there was no evidence before the court that Billings continued to suffer from Meniere's Disease after the last day of trial. Additionally, UNUM argues that the district court should have remanded the case to UNUM as the plan administrator to determine in the first instance whether Billings continued to suffer a disability past the last day of trial. 27 UNUM relies on this court's statement that, as a general rule, remand to the plan fiduciary is the appropriate remedy when the plan administrator has not had an opportunity to consider evidence on an issue. Levinson, 245 F.3d at 1330 (citing Jett v. Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Ala., Inc., 890 F.2d 1137, 1140 (11th Cir.1989)). However, in Levinson we explained that the above statement was made in the context of the beneficiary asking the court to consider additional evidence concerning his eligibility under the plan. Id. at 1329. Accordingly, in Levinson we held that because all of the evidence before the district court showed that [the insured]'s condition had not improved and tended to show that he was still disabled under the terms of the plan, remand was neither a necessary nor an appropriate remedy. Id. at 1330. Accordingly, we affirmed the district court's award of benefits. Id. 28 UNUM contends that Levinson is distinguishable from the present case because the record in Levinson contained evidence that the insured continued to suffer a disability through the last day of trial, and benefits were awarded only through that date. Although we have not squarely addressed whether the insured is required to continue to present evidence of an on-going disability throughout trial and the entry of judgment in order to ensure an award of disability benefits through such date, the First Circuit has clearly rejected such an argument. 29 In Cook v. Liberty Life Assurance Co., 320 F.3d 11, 23-25 (1st Cir.2003), the First Circuit held that an award of back pay disability benefits for the forty-two months between the time the insured's disability benefits were terminated and judgment was entered was appropriate, despite the fact that there was no evidence of the insured's disability status past the day benefits were terminated. The court noted that the absence of information about [the insured]'s disability status resulted directly from [the insurer]'s arbitrary and capricious termination of [the insured]'s benefits because the insured was no longer obligated under the policy to provide evidence of a continuing disability after her benefits were terminated. Id. at 24. Thus, the court reasoned that [i]t would be patently unfair to hold that an ERISA plaintiff has a continuing responsibility to update her former insurance company and the court on her disability during the pendency of her internal appeals and litigation, on the off chance that she might prevail in her lawsuit. Id. at 24-25. We agree. 30 After reviewing the record, we conclude that although there was no evidence in the record that Billings continued to suffer a disability during the period between the last day of trial and the day the district court entered judgment, there was also no evidence before the district court indicating that Billings's condition had improved during such time period. Therefore, we affirm the district court's final judgment awarding disability benefits due to Meniere's Disease.