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UnitedHealth Group Inc., et al. v. Louis J. Peterson, on Behalf of Patients E, I, K, L, N, P, Q, and R, et al.

Paid petition · United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, No. 17-1744 · judgment January 15, 2019

Dismissed · October 22, 2019
Pre-decision estimate: 2% cert probability

Before the decision, well below the 4.1% base rate, with no standout signals pointing toward a grant.

Questions presented

This Court held in Firestone Tire & Rubber Co. v. Bruch, 489 U.S. 101 (1989), that a highly deferential standard of judicial review applies to interpretations of ERISA plans by administrators to whom the plans delegate interpretive discretion. The questions presented are:

  1. Whether the Eight Circuit erred in holding— consistent with decisions of the First Circuit but in conflict with those of the Third, Fifth, and Seventh Circuits—that under the deferential Firestone standard of review, an administrator’s determination that the plan authorizes certain remedial actions or measures is necessarily unreasonable merely because the plan is silent on the matter.

  2. Whether the Firestone deference standard allows courts to reject an otherwise reasonable plan construction that is lawful under ERISA but, in the court’s view, pushes ERISA’s boundaries.

Counsel of record

For petitioner
Gregory Frederick Jacob
O'Melveny & Myers LLP

For respondent
Andrew Nathan Goldfarb
Zuckerman Spaeder LLP

Case

Conference history
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Proceedings

  1. Oct 22 2019
    Petition Dismissed - Rule 46.
  2. Oct 21 2019
    Stipulation of dismissal under Rule 46 filed.
  3. Oct 01 2019
    Motion to extend the time to file a response is granted and the time is further extended to and including October 31, 2019.
  4. Sep 30 2019
    Motion to extend the time to file a response from October 1, 2019 to October 31, 2019, submitted to The Clerk.
  5. Aug 23 2019
    Motion to extend the time to file a response is granted and the time is further extended to and including October 1, 2019.
  6. Aug 22 2019
    Motion to extend the time to file a response from August 30, 2019 to October 1, 2019, submitted to The Clerk.
  7. Jul 30 2019
    Motion to extend the time to file a response is granted and the time is further extended to and including August 30, 2019.
  8. Jul 29 2019
    Motion to extend the time to file a response from July 31, 2019 to August 30, 2019, submitted to The Clerk.
  9. Jun 18 2019
    Motion to extend the time to file a response is granted and the time is extended to and including July 31, 2019.
  10. Jun 17 2019
    Motion to extend the time to file a response from July 1, 2019 to July 31, 2019, submitted to The Clerk.
  11. May 30 2019
    Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due July 1, 2019)