Aetna Beats Disability Benefits Suit Thanks to 9th Cir. Opinion

A software consultant who sued Aetna Life Insurance Co. for reducing her monthly disability benefits lost her lawsuit when a federal judge held that her claim of fiduciary breach under ERISA was foreclosed by a recent Ninth Circuit opinion.

Irina Morris can’t maintain fiduciary breach claims based on Aetna’s miscalculation and adjustment of her benefit amount, because a third-party administrator doesn’t act as a fiduciary under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act when it calculates benefits, Judge Stanley Blumenfeld Jr. of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California held Monday.

Blumenfeld cited the U.S. Court of Appeals ...