{"id":7572,"date":"2020-05-07T20:30:00","date_gmt":"2020-05-08T01:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nickortizlaw.com\/?p=7572"},"modified":"2024-02-14T14:07:37","modified_gmt":"2024-02-14T19:07:37","slug":"sumpter-v-metlife-court-finds-that-claimants-lawsuit-is-frivolous","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nickortizlaw.com\/sumpter-v-metlife-court-finds-that-claimants-lawsuit-is-frivolous\/","title":{"rendered":"Sumpter v. MetLife – Court Finds That Claimant’s Lawsuit is Frivolous"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Case Name: <\/strong>James B. Sumpter v. Metropolitan Life Insurance Company<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Court: <\/strong>U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Date of Decision: <\/strong>April 18, 2017<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Type of Claim:\u00a0<\/strong>Long-Term Disability<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Insurance Company: <\/strong>Metropolitan Life Insurance Company<\/a>, aka MetLife for short.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Claimant\u2019s Employer: <\/strong>General Motors<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Claimant\u2019s Occupation \/ Job Position: <\/strong>Electrical Engineer<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Procedural History:\u00a0<\/strong>Sumpter then brought this ERISA<\/a> suit in the Southern District of Indiana against DPH, Delphi\u2019s Disability Benefits Program Plan, and MetLife. In granting summary judgment for MetLife, the district court reasoned that when Sumpter became disabled, Delphi\u2019s plan did not provide the benefit he sought and that he was not entitled to equitable relief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Issues: <\/strong>Whether there is insurance coverage in this claim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Holdings: <\/strong>The problem for Sumpter is on the merits: his lawsuit is frivolous because MetLife has no obligation to pay the benefit he seeks. Sumpter doesn\u2019t seriously dispute that GM eliminated the early-payout benefit from its plan in 1994 and that Delphi didn\u2019t include a similar benefit in its 2000 plan. Even so, Sumpter argues he is entitled to the early-payout benefit under GM\u2019s 1992 plan because GM (and later Delphi) didn\u2019t give him plan summaries. But whether or not that allegation is true, section 1132(a)(1)(B) does not authorize a court to \u201creform\u201d a plan by reading into it a benefit not provided by the plan\u2019s terms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Noteworthy court comments: <\/strong>\u201cThis litigation represents the latest effort by James Sumpter to receive a disability benefit that his former employer, Delphi Automotive Systems, did not offer as part of its employee welfare benefits plan when he became disabled. He now seeks recovery against the plan\u2019s claims administrator, Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, on the grounds that it wrongly denied him benefits and breached fiduciary duties arising under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), 29 U.S.C. \u00a7\u00a7 1001\u20131461. Sumpter\u2019s contentions are frivolous, so we affirm the district court\u2019s grant of summary judgment for MetLife.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Disclaimer: This case was not handled by disability attorney Nick A. Ortiz. The court case is summarized here to give readers a better understanding of how Federal Courts decide long-term disability ERISA claims.<\/p>\n

Here is a PDF copy of the decision: Sumpter v. MetLife<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In granting summary judgment for MetLife, the district court reasoned that when Sumpter became disabled, Delphi\u2019s plan did not provide the benefit he sought and that he was not entitled to equitable relief. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit upheld this decision.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[258],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nickortizlaw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7572"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nickortizlaw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nickortizlaw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nickortizlaw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nickortizlaw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7572"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nickortizlaw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7572\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nickortizlaw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nickortizlaw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nickortizlaw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}