United States Eighth Circuit
Darvel v. Life Ins. Co. of N. Am., 09-1058
In an ERISA action regarding defendant-insurer's denial of long-term disability benefits to plaintiff, summary judgment for defendant is affirmed where: 1) it was not an abuse of an ERISA plan administrator's discretion to ignore an opinion when the physician did not provide reliable objective evidence of testing or other proof to support a finding of long term disability; and 2) the plan administrator did not abuse its discretion by using the DOT description of plaintiff's occupation, rather than a description of his actual job duties.
Appellate Information
- Decided 03/10/2010
- Published 03/10/2010
Judges
Court
- United States Eighth Circuit