Cooper v. Metropolitan Life Insurance Co., No. 16-3429 (8th Cir. 2017)
Annotate this CaseThe Eighth Circuit affirmed MetLife's denial of long term disability (LTD) benefits to plaintiff under a group insurance plan sponsored by her former employer pursuant to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), 29 U.S.C. 1001 et seq. The court held that plaintiff presented no evidence of factors tending to demonstrate a consequential conflict of interest, or other indicia of biased decision making; the district court did not err by using an abuse of discretion standard of review; and MetLife did not abuse its discretion by denying LTD benefits to plaintiff where it properly considered all medical records, APS reports, comments, and other information submitted by plaintiff and her physicians.
Court Description: Nelson, Author, with Wollman and Loken, Circuit Judges] Civil case - ERISA. The district court did not err in concluding defendant did not have a consequential conflict of interest and did not err in reviewing its decision to deny benefits under an abuse-of-discretion standard; defendant did not abuse its discretion by denying plaintiff's claim for long-term disability benefits where plaintiff failed to produce objective evidence to support the claim of disability.
Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.