Foster v. Sedgwick Claims Management Services, Inc.Foster v. Sedgwick Claims Management Services, Inc.
MEMORANDUM OPINION
On August 28, 2015, this Court issued a Memorandum Opinion and separate Order granting summary judgment in favor of Defendants Sedgwick Claims Management Services, Inc., and Sun Trust Bank’s Short-Term and Long-Term Disability Plans. See ECF Nos. 28-29. Plaintiff Kelly Foster now moves under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 59(e) to alter or amend that judgment and under Rule 15(a) to amend her Complaint. As the arguments and legal theories she offers are based neither on new or previously unavailable evidence nor on any intervening change in the law, the Court will deny the Motion.
I. Background
The background of this case is set forth in greater detail in the Court’s Opinion, see Foster v. Sedgwick Claims Mgmt.
Defendants thereafter moved for summary judgment, contending, first, that the STD Plan was not covered by ERISA, and, second, that Foster was not eligible for benefits under the LTD Plan. See ECF No. 22 (Def. MSJ) at 1-2. Concurring with both contentions, the Court granted the Motion.
In its Opinion, the Court began by noting that Foster had unambiguously conceded that the STD Plan is not governed by ERISA, and that such concession seemed wise given that the Plan resembled. a payroll-practices plan rather than an employee-benefit plan that would be covered by the statute. See Foster,
The Court next turned to the LTD Plan, which all parties agreed was governed by ERISA. Id. at 206,
In considering the merits, the Court first noted that the LTD Plan requires that claimants be disabled for a 180-day “waiting period,” during which they (1) may not return to work for more than 30 days and (2) must maintain eligibility for STD benefits or Workers’ Compensation. See ECF No. 22, Exh. 3 (LTD Plan) at 4-5. Sedgwick informed Foster that it denied her request for LTD benefits because she had failed to satisfy either of the two waiting-period requirements. See ECF No. 22, Exh. 17 (LTD Denial Letter). Relying on the evidence in the record, the Court concluded that Sedgwick did not abuse its discretion in deciding that Foster had not proven that she was entitled to STD benefits throughout the waiting period. See Foster,
On September 25, 2015, Plaintiff timely filed the instant Motion for Reconsideration and for Leave to File an Amended Complaint. See ECF No. 30.
II. Legal Standard
Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 59(e) permits the filing of a motion to alter or
III. Analysis
In her Motion for Reconsideration, Foster advances two new theories about the STD Plan: Abjuring her prior concession that the Plan was not covered by ERISA, she now contends that it is covered by the statute. Alternatively, she asserts that the STD Plan is so “related” to the ERISA-covered LTD Plan that ERISA preempts any state-law remedies; as a result, she believes, her claim lies only under ERISA. She also repeats two previously argued theories about the LTD Plan — namely, that the Court should have reviewed Sedg-wick’s decision to deny her LTD benefits under a de novo standard, and that Sedg-wick improperly labored under a conflict of interest as the claims administrator for both Plans. Last, Plaintiff asks that the Court permit her to amend her Complaint to include a claim that Defendants interfered with her rights under these Plans, in violation of ERISA § 510. See 29 U.S.C. § 1140. The Court will address each of these issues in turn.
A. STD Plan
Plaintiff devotes the majority of her Motion to the STD Plan. Her two contentions about that Plan, while presented as alternatives, both assert that Sedgwick’s denial of her claim for STD benefits should have been evaluated under ERISA. Fostеr’s first argument, wholly absent from her summary-judgment briefing, is that although the STD Plan looks like a payroll-practices plan not governed by ERISA, it actually is an ERISA plan. See Mot. at 6. As a result, she insists, the Court should have considered whether the denial of STD benefits violated ERISA. Her second argument, in the alternative, is that the STD Plan “relatеs to” the ERISA-governed LTD Plan in such a way as to preempt any state-law relief.
To begin, the Court must underscore, as do Defendants, that Plaintiffs position is directly at odds with her prior express and unequivocal concession that the STD Plan is not governed by ERISA. See MSJ Opp. at 1 (“Defendants assert and Plaintiff agrees that thе Short-Term Disability Plan (“STD”) is not plan
[sic]
covered under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.”) (emphasis added). Plaintiff has offered no reason why she could not have raised her new arguments in her summary-judgment submissions, nor has she explained in her current Motion why she opted to take her earlier position that the Plan is not covered by ERISA and why she subsequently changed her mind. This omission is problematic for her, as it is well established that Rule 59(e) motions “may not be used to
The Court’s analysis could end there. Yet even if the Court were inclined to consider a contradictory litigation position in a Rule 59(e) motion, it would not be persuaded by Plaintiffs new contentions. Her first argument is doomed by her failure to identify any authority suggesting that if a benefits plan walks like a payroll practice and talks like a payroll practice, it nevertheless is not such a practice. The determination of whether a plan is an ERISA plan, rather than a payroll-practice plan is, obviously, a fact-intensive, multi-factored inquiry. See Kolkowski v. Goodrich Corp.,
Even if the STD Plan is not directly covered by ERISA, Plaintiff now argues in the alternative that it “relates to” the LTD Plan, which is governed by that statute. See Mot. at 10. As a result, she maintains, relief under ERISA must be available to her, since any state-law breach-of-contract claim could not survive ERISA’s fairly broad preemption provision, under which the statute “shall supersede any and all State laws” and causes of action that “relate to any employee benefit plan.” 29 U.S.C. § 1144(a). The cases Foster marshals in purported support of- her alternative approach, however, find state-law remedies preempted only where they would overlap with an extant ERISA claim. See, e.g., Aetna Health Inc. v. Davila,
Ignoring these nuances, Plaintiff merely asserts that because eligibility under the LTD Plan, an ERISA plan, incorporates eligibility for the STD Plan, a non-ERISA plan, the two are “relаted,” thereby preempting any non-ERISA claims for relief. Of course, since eligibility for Workers’ Compensation is an alternative path that can also qualify Sun Trust employees
B. LTD Plan
Although the lion’s share of Plaintiffs Motion centers on the STD Plan, it also briefly addresses the LTD Plan. Foster does not appear to contest the merits of the Court’s decision with respect to the latter; instead, she states, confusingly, that “There Was No LTD Claim Before The Court for Review” because “[t]he only issuе related to the LTD plan involved whether Plaintiff was eligible to apply for the benefits.” Mot. at 15. Although the Court does not precisely follow this argument, it notes that throughout this litigation, Foster has, in fact, pressed a claim for relief based on the LTD Plan. See Compl., ¶ 23 (“Plaintiff requests that this court review the denial of benefits in this case and declare that she is entitled to all benefits under the short and long term disability plans. ... ”) (emphasis added).
Foster next reasserts her contentions that (1) the LTD Plan did not confer discretionary authority on Sedgwick as its claims administrator, so the standard of review for a claim under that Plan is
de novo;
and (2) Sedgwick operated under an “apparent conflict of interest embedded in the relationship between the STD Plan and the LTD Plan.” Mot. at 15-16. Both of these issues were briefed by Plaintiff at the summary-judgment stage and resolved by the Court in its Memorandum Opinion. See Foster,
Plaintiff proffers no newly discovered evidence nor any intervening change in the law meriting reexamination of the Court’s earlier resolution of these issues. Foster belatedly suggests, in her Reply, that the Court did not rely on the correct documents in interpreting the Plan, see Reply at 11-14, but she does not identify the documents the Court should have used, and she further does not explain why she failed to object to the documents introduced by Defendants or to submit the correct documents at summary judgment. As such, the Court stands by its determination that the denial of LTD benefits is to be reviewed under a deferential standard in light of Sedgwick’s discretion to assess entitlement to benefits under that Plan, and that, under this standard, Sedgwick’s denial of benefits was reasonable. Finally, Plaintiff has not presented evidence establishing that a conflict of interest undermined the reasonableness of that decision. Her arguments are “essentially a rehash of the arguments presented to and previously rejected by this Court” and thus do not warrant vacatur of the final judgment. New York v. United States,
As previously noted, Plaintiffs Motion for Reconsideration also includes a request for leave to amend her Complaint. See Mot. at 12. The proposed amendment includes a new cause of action claiming that Defendants violated Section 510 of ERISA by “interfering with the attainment of [her] right[s] ... under the plan[s].” Id.; 29 U.S.C. § 1140.
Leave tо amend a complaint after judgment may be granted only after the Court vacates that judgment. See Ciralsky,
As a final note, to the extent that she sought to raise a claim under ERISA § 510 in her prior Opposition to Defendants’ Motion for Summary Judgment, her brief citation to that statutory provision, see Opp. at 19, was too cursory to do so. As the D.C. Circuit has often reiterated, “[A] request for leave [to amend] must be submitted in the form of a written motion.” Benoit v. U.S. Dept. of Agriculture,
IV. Conclusion
As Plaintiff has not met the exacting Rule 59(e) standard for altering the judgment for Defendants, the Court will deny her Motion. An Order to that effect will issue this day.