Opinion ID: 202751
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: COBRA Compliance

Text: 40 COBRA requires employers to give employees the opportunity to continue health care coverage for a specified period of time after a qualifying event, at the employee's expense. 29 U.S.C. § 1161(a); see Claudio-Gotay v. Becton Dickinson Caribe, Ltd., 375 F.3d 99, 103 (1st Cir. 2004). Termination of employment is considered a qualifying event. 29 U.S.C. § 1163(2). COBRA also requires employers to notify health care plan administrators of the termination within 30 days of the qualifying event. Id. § 1166(a)(2). Thereafter, plan administrators have fourteen days to notify the qualified beneficiary of her right to continued coverage. Id. § 1166(c). 41 Torres claims that Merck-PR did not comply with COBRA's notice requirements because it used her old address to notify her of her COBRA rights, despite the alleged fact that she called Merck-PR at some point after December 11, 2001 to inform the company of her new Puerto Rico address. Noting that Torres admitted to having her mail forwarded from her old address to her new Puerto Rico address, the district court dismissed Torres's COBRA claim holding that Merck-PR had substantially complied with COBRA's notification requirements because its notice was reasonably calculated to reach Torres. We disagree. 42 COBRA does not state how notice should be given. But courts that have addressed the issue have held that `a good faith attempt to comply with a reasonable interpretation of the statute is sufficient.' Smith v. Rogers Galvanizing Co., 128 F.3d 1380, 1383-84 (10th Cir.1997) (internal quotation marks omitted); see also, e.g., Degruise v. Sprint Corp., 279 F.3d 333, 336 (5th Cir.2002) ([E]mployers are required to operate in good faith compliance with a reasonable interpretation of what adequate notice entails.) (internal quotation marks omitted); Branch v. G. Bernd Co., 764 F.Supp. 1527, 1534 n. 11 (M.D.Ga. 1991) ([C]ourts have generally validated methods of notice which are calculated to reach the beneficiary.), aff'd 955 F.2d 1574 (11th Cir.1992). Several courts have specifically found that employers are in compliance with § 1166(a) when they send COBRA notices via first class mail to an employee's last-known address. See Holford v. Exhibit Design Consultants, 218 F.Supp.2d 901, 906 (W.D.Mich.2002); Torres-Negrón v. Ramallo Bros. Printing, Inc., 203 F.Supp.2d 120, 124-25 (D.P.R. 2002). 43 Merck-PR (through the third-party health care plan administrator) sent Torres a notice of her rights under COBRA on January 2, 2001 via certified mail to the address Torres had given when she worked at Merck-Mexico. Torres alleges that she informed Merck-PR of her new address in Puerto Rico in a telephone call made to the company mid-December 2001. Looking at the evidence in the light most favorable to Torres, we cannot say as a matter of law — the standard we apply on summary judgment — that Merck-PR made a good faith effort to comply with COBRA because there is a dispute as to the facts regarding whether Merck-PR knowingly sent the notice to the wrong address.