Court Opinion

ID: 9813783
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 23:20:12.626888+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:31:55.668648
License: Public Domain

ROGERS, Circuit Judge.
Plaintiff Brad D. Kennedy appeals the district court’s judgment on the administrative record in favor of defendant UNUM Life Insurance Company of America on Kennedy’s claim under the Employment Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, 29 U.S.C. § 1132(a)(1)(B). After reviewing the record, the parties’ briefs, and the applicable law, this court determines that no jurisprudential purpose would be served by a panel opinion and affirms the district court’s decision for the reasons stated in Magistrate Judge King’s August 13, 2004, opinion and order. Although Kennedy argues that the district court should have used a heightened arbitrary and capricious standard of review because UNUM suffered from a conflict of interest, the precedent in this circuit is clear that a conflict is taken into account only as a factor in the court’s ordinary arbitrary and capricious review. See, e.g., Kalish v. Liberty Mut./Liberty Life Assurance Co. of Boston, 419 F.3d 501, 506 (6th Cir.2005). The district court properly granted judgment on the administrative record in favor of UNUM. Its judgment is therefore AFFIRMED.