Opinion ID: 197450
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Providing for Discovery and Proffers of Relevant Evidence

Text: 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.