United States Second Circuit

In an ERISA challenge to a union disability-benefits denial, dismissal of the complaint is reversed where: 1) a fund organized pursuant to 29 U.S.C. section 186(c)(5) is conflicted within the meaning of Metropolitan Life Insurance Company v. Glenn, 128 S. Ct. 2343 (2008); 2) the district court should have accorded the conflict in this case more weight; and 3) no rational trier of fact could have failed to conclude that the benefits denial was arbitrary and capricious.

Appellate Information

• Argued 04/05/2010
• Decided 06/24/2010
• Published 06/24/2010

Judges

• DENNIS JACOBS, Chief Judge:, Before JACOBS, Chief Judge, WINTER and WALKER, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Second Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Ira H. Zuckerman (Max D. Leifer, of counsel), New York, NY, for Plaintiff-Appellant.


• For Appellees:
  
• Ira A. Sturm, Raab, Sturm & Ganchrow, LLP, New York, NY, for Defendants-Appellees.