United States Sixth Circuit

A district court's rejection of a plan administrator's decision to discontinue disability benefits to a company's COO under his employer's disability benefits plan is affirmed on an alternate ground that the plan administrator violated the notice requirements of ERISA. The remedy of reinstating the benefits retroactively is also affirmed as plaintiff had an expectation of continued benefits until they were terminated by lawful procedures.

Appellate Information

• Decided 04/12/2007
• Published 04/12/2007

Judges

• Before: ROGERS and GRIFFIN, Circuit Judges;  OBERDORFER, District Judge.

Court

• United States Sixth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellees:
  
• ARGUED:  Mark E. Schmidtke, Schmidtke Hoeppner Consultants, Valparaiso, Indiana, for Appellant.  Robert Jan Jennings, Branstetter, Kilgore, Stranch & Jennings, Nashville, Tennessee, for Appellee.   ON BRIEF:  Mark E. Schmidtke, Schmidtke Hoeppner Consultants, Valparaiso, Indiana, for Appellant.  Robert Jan Jennings, Branstetter, Kilgore, Stranch & Jennings, Nashville, Tennessee, for Appellee.