Court Opinion

ID: 9498185
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 17:10:32.509461+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:58:40.529613
License: Public Domain

RYMER, Circuit Judge,
concurring in part and in the judgment:
I agree that we must reverse because of the intervening reversal of the “treating physician rule” in Black & Decker Disability Plan v. Nord, 538 U.S. 822, 123 S.Ct. 1965, 155 L.Ed.2d 1034 (2003). However, while I understand the majority’s basis for distinguishing Jebian v. Hewlett-Packard, 349 F.3d 1098 (9th Cir.2003), I am hard-pressed to say that “deemed denials” can mean one thing if embedded in a Plan and another if established by regulation. I therefore part company on this issue.