Date: 10-20-1999

Case Style: Stephanie Lewis v. Aetna Healthcare, Inc.

Case Number: 99-cv-104-H(M)

Judge: Sven Erick Holmes

Court: United States District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma

Plaintiff's Attorney: Joseph F. Clark of the Law Office of Joseph F. Clark, Jr., Tulsa, Oklahoma

Defendant's Attorney: R. Casey Cooper and Sheila M. Powers of Boesche, McDermott & Eskridge, L.L.P., Tulsa, Oklahoma

Description: Breach contract and bad faith failure to pay life insurance benefits provided as part of a benefit package by decedent's employer.

Defendant removed the case from state court and moved to dismiss the bad faith portion of the claim based upon ERISA preemption.

Outcome: Motion to dismiss denied. The court found that the Christian cause of action was based on Oklahoma's staturory policy concerns specific to the insurance industry. The court further found that the Christian tort does not exist outside the context of insurance contracts. Under UNUM, Christrian satisfies the requirements of the McCarran-Ferguson Act for a state law that regulates the business of insurance and that the cause of action is a state law that regulates insurance and therefore avoids preemption pursuant to ERISA's saving clause.

Plaintiff's Experts: Unknown

Defendant's Experts: Unknown

Comments: None