Date: 06-17-2014

Case Style: Deborah Clark v. Magellan Midstream Partners, LP and Life Insurance Company of North America

Case Number: CJ-2013-3627

Judge: Dana Kuehn

Court: District Court, Tulsa County, Oklahoma

Plaintiff's Attorney: Jonathan Shook

Defendant's Attorney: Kimberly Love

Description: Deborah Clark v. Magellan Midstream Partners, LP and Life Insurance Company of North America

Issue # 1.
Issue: BREACH OF AGREEMENT - CONTRACT (CONTRACT)
Filed by: CLARK, DEBORAH
Filed Date: 08/05/2013
Party Name: Disposition Information:

Defendant: LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY OF NORTH AMERICA
Disposed: DISMISSED - WITH PREJUDICE, 06/17/2014. Dismissed- Settled.

Defendant: MAGELLAN MIDSTREAM PARTNERS LP
Disposed: DISMISSED - WITH PREJUDICE, 06/17/2014. Dismissed- Settled.

6. Plaintiff is a thirty-two (32) year-old female. She began working for Magellan, a successor to Williams Energy Partners L.P., in or about September 2001. She was last employed in the position of Senior One Call Coordinator, and she has worked in that capacity for about the last eight (8) years.
7. Magellan provides it employees with various fringe benefits. Included among those are short tem and long term disability benefits to provide income protection in the event he or she is unable to work due to illness, injury or pregnancy.
8. Magellan self-insures with respect to the short term disability (“STD”) coverage it provides to its employees. Magellan’s STD program is provided through a self- funded salary continuation plan. As such, Magellan’s STD program is not an employee welfare benefit plan within the meaning of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act
(“ERISA”).
9. According to a Magellan benefit brochure, an employee will receive STD payments if her claim is approved by LINA, and STD benefit payments will terminate upon a L1NA case manager’s decision that benefits are no longer payable.
10. Under the STD program, a Magellan employee may receive 100% or 60% of her base salary depending on how long she worked for the company. STD payments could continue for a maximum of 26 weeks.
11. A Magellan employee who remains disabled beyond the 26-week maximum benefit period under the STD program may be eligible to receive long term disability (“LTD”) benefits under the Magellan LTD plan.
12. Magellan’s LTD plan provides for LTD bencfits through an insurance policy. The LTD insurance coverage Magellan provides to its eligible employees, including Plaintiff, is pursuant to a group LTD insurance policy issucd by LINA, Policy number LK960763.
13. However, the payment of LTD benefits pursuant to Magellan’s LTD plan is contingent upon an eligible employee satisf5ring the 180-day “elimination period” imposed by the applicable insurance policy, and during that “elimination period” a claimant must be continuously disabled in order for LTD benefits to be payable.
14. Therefore, according to the prerequisites of Magellan’s LTD plan, a LTD claimant is not eligible to receive LTD benefits from LINA unless it finds her to be totally disabled for the duration of the 26-week period of the STD program.
15. With respect to the administration of Magellan’s STD program, Magellan contracted with LINA to provide certain claim administration services. The services to be provided by LINA and the obligations and duties retained by Magellan with respect to the S’I’D program are set out in the Claim Consulting Agreement (No. SHD-961246) executed by each in 2006.
16. The Claim Consulting Agreement provides, “Consultant will provide the initial and ongoing screening of claims to determine whether benefits are payable in accordance with the terms of the Plan.” According to the Agreement, “ifpayable, Consultant will advise Employer of the approved payment period under the tenns ofthe Plan.” The Agreement goes on to say “Employer shall be responsible for making the final decision with respect to all claims, for communicating such decisions and the amount payable to the claimants and Consultant, and for funding and issuing all benefit payments.”
17. The “Plan” repeatedly referred to in the Claim Consulting Agreement is identified as the salary continuance plan Magellan had purportedly provided to its employees and which was incorporated by reference and attached to the Claim Consulting Agreement as Schedule C.

Outcome: 06-17-2014 DWP - 90400075 Jun 18 2014 8:20:22:923AM - $ 0.00
JOINT STIPULATION OF DISMISSAL WITH PREJUDICE ALL CLAIMS AND COUNTERCLAIMS
Document Available (#1026262788)
06-17-2014 DISPCVDMWP 1 LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY OF NORTH AMERICA 90400077 Jun 18 2014 8:19:52:633AM - $ 0.00
DISMISSAL WITH PREJUDICE
06-17-2014 DISPCVDMWP 1 MAGELLAN MIDSTREAM PARTNERS LP 90400079 Jun 18 2014 8:19:56:093AM - $ 0.00
DISMISSAL WITH PREJUDICE

Plaintiff's Experts:

Defendant's Experts:

Comments: