US SUPREME COURT DECISIONS
UNUM LIFE INSURANCE CO. OF AMERICA v. WARD 526 U.S. 358
Subscribe to Cases that cite 526 U.S. 358OCTOBER TERM, 1998
Syllabus
UNUM LIFE INSURANCE CO. OF AMERICA v. WARD
CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT
No. 97-1868. Argued February 24, 1999-Decided April 20, 1999
Defendant-petitioner UNUM Life Insurance Company of America (UNUM) issued a long-term group disability policy to Management Analysis Company (MAC) as an insured welfare benefit plan governed by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA). The policy provides that proofs of claim must be furnished to UNUM, at the latest, one year and 180 days after the onset of disability. Under the admitted facts of this case, plaintiff-respondent Ward, a MAC employee, became permanently disabled on May 5, 1992. In late February or early March 1993, he qualified for state disability benefits in California, where he worked, and thereupon informed MAC of his disability. In April 1994, Ward asked MAC whether its long-term disability plan covered his condition. When MAC told him it did, Ward completed a benefits application and sent it to MAC, which processed the application and forwarded it to UNUM. UNUM received proof of Ward's claim on April 11, 1994. Because this notice was late under the policy terms, UNUM advised Ward that his claim was denied as untimely. Ward filed this suit under ERISA's civil enforcement provision, 29 U. S. C. § 1132(a), to recover the disability benefits provided by the plan. He argued that, because a California employer administering an insured group health plan should be deemed to act as the insurance company's agent under Elfstrom v. New York Life Ins. Co., 67 Cal. 2d 503, 512, 432 P. 2d 731, 737, his notice of permanent disability to MAC, in February or March 1993, sufficed to supply timely notice to UNUM. The District Court rejected this argument, concluding that California's Elfstrom rule is subject to ERISA's preemption clause, § 1144(a), which states that ERISA provisions "shall supersede ... State laws" to the extent that those laws "relate to any employee benefit plan." In rendering summary judgment for UNUM, the District Court further held that the Elfstrom rule is not preserved under ERISA's saving clause, § 1144(b)(2)(A), which exempts from preemption "any law of any State which regulates insurance." The Ninth Circuit reversed, identifying two grounds on which Ward might prevail. First, that court relied on California's "notice-prejudice" rule, under which an insurer cannot avoid liability although the proof of claim is untimely, unless the insurer shows it suffered actual prejudice from the delay. Following its precedent,
the appeals court held that the notice-prejudice rule is saved from ERISA preemption as a law that "regulates insurance." Second, and contingently, the Ninth Circuit held that the Elfstrom agency rule does not "relate to" employee benefit plans, and therefore is not preempted by reason of ERISA. The court remanded the case for a determination whether UNUM suffered actual prejudice from Ward's late notice of claim; and if so, whether, under Elfstrom, Ward could prevail because he had timely filed his claim.
Held:
1. California's notice-prejudice rule is a "law ... which regulates insurance," and is therefore saved from preemption by ERISA. Pp. 366-375.
(a) Because the parties agree that the notice-prejudice rule falls under ERISA's preemption clause as a state law that "relate[s] to" employee benefit plans, their dispute hinges on whether the rule "regulates insurance" and thus escapes preemption under the saving clause. This Court's precedent provides a framework for resolving that question. First, the Court asks whether, from a "common-sense view of the matter," the contested prescription regulates insurance. E. g., Metropolitan Life Ins. Co. v. Massachusetts, 471 U. S. 724, 740. Second, the Court considers three factors to determine whether the regulation fits within the "business of insurance" as that phrase is used in the McCarran-Ferguson Act: whether the regulation (1) has the effect of transferring or spreading a policyholder's risk, (2) is an integral part of the policy relationship between the insurer and the insured, and (3) is limited to entities within the insurance industry. Id., at 743. Pp. 366-368.
(b) The Ninth Circuit correctly concluded that the notice-prejudice rule "regulates insurance" as a matter of common sense. This Court does not normally disturb an appeals court's judgment on an issue so heavily dependent on analysis of state law, see Runyon v. McCrary, 427 U. S. 160, 181-182, and there is no cause to do so here. Because it controls the terms of the insurance relationship by requiring the insurer to prove prejudice before enforcing proof-of-claim requirements, the California rule, by its very terms, is directed specifically at the insurance industry and is applicable only to insurance contracts. The rule thus appears to satisfy the common-sense view as a regulation that homes in on the insurance industry and does not just have an impact on that industry. Pilot Life Ins. Co. v. Dedeaux, 481 U. S. 41, 50. The Court rejects UNUM's argument that the rule cannot be held to "regulate insurance" because it is merely an industry-specific application of the general principle that disproportionate forfeiture should be avoided in
