4th Cir. Sides With MetLife in Worker Disability Benefits Denial

Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. adhered to the terms of its plan in severing disability benefits to a former Continental Automotive Inc. employee, the Fourth Circuit ruled.

Tracy Penland quit working for the auto parts supplier in August 2015, citing complications from colon surgery after contracting an infection on a business trip to Mexico, in addition to a host of other conditions.

MetLife initially approved disability benefits, but terminated them in January 2021 after three external medical consultants—internist Joshua Lewis, physical medicine and rehab specialist Naveed Natanzi, and physician Marvin Pietruszka—determined that Penland had received the maximum benefits for his ...