Opinion ID: 72279
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Fines and Attorney's Fees

Text: 18 The former deputy sheriffs contend that the district court erred by denying their request for fines and attorney's fees based on Jefferson County's failure to comply with the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA) notification requirements set forth in the Public Health Services Act (PHSA), 42 U.S.C. § 300bb-6. The COBRA amendments of the PHSA provide that state and local governments must offer to terminated public employees continued health plan coverage for a specified time following their termination. 42 U.S.C. § 300bb-1 to § 300bb-3. Furthermore, the PHSA requires that the plan administrator, within fourteen days of his notification of the employee's termination, notify the terminated employee in writing of the employee's right to elect to continue the coverage. 42 U.S.C. § 300bb-6. The county failed to notify the former deputy sheriffs of their rights to continued coverage until after the former deputy sheriffs filed this action, at which time the county offered each former deputy sheriff the proper coverage. The former deputy sheriffs contend that they are entitled to fines and attorney's fees because 42 U.S.C. § 300bb-7 allows an individual who is aggrieved by the government's failure to comply with the requirements of the PHSA to bring an action for appropriate equitable relief. 19 COBRA amended both the PHSA and the Employment Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) and included similar coverage and notification provisions in each act. Williams v. New Castle County, 970 F.2d 1260, 1264 (3d Cir.1992). The COBRA provisions of ERISA and PHSA represent parallel statutory schemes. ERISA, however, excludes public employees covered by government health plans from ERISA's employee benefit plan provisions, 29 U.S.C. § 1003(b)(1), whereas the PHSA applies only to such employees. The two acts can be further distinguished because ERISA provides broader relief to aggrieved private employees than the PHSA provides to similarly situated public employees. Mansfield v. Chicago Park Dist. Group Plan, 946 F.Supp. 586, 591 (N.D.Ill.1996). For example, ERISA not only provides for appropriate equitable relief, 29 U.S.C. § 1132(a)(3), but also explicitly provides for the recovery of fines and attorney's fees, 29 U.S.C. §§ 1132(c) and (g). The PHSA contains no provisions regarding the recovery of fines or attorney's fees and instead limits relief to appropriate equitable relief. 29 U.S.C. § 1003(b)(1). The former deputy sheriffs would have us read the phrase appropriate equitable relief in the COBRA provisions of the PHSA to include fines and attorney's fees. We decline to do so in view of Congress's decision that ERISA should provide more extensive remedies than the PHSA. Rather, we determine that the PHSA and ERISA, viewed together, show that Congress would have included provisions for fines and attorney's fees in the PHSA had it intended that such relief should be available to public employees. 14 Thus, we affirm the district court's grant of summary judgment on the former deputy sheriffs' COBRA claim. 15