Levi Goldfarb, et al. v. Reliance Standard Life Insurance Company

I. The insured under a policy insuring against accidental death, which was subject to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (“ERISA”) and did not exclude mountain climbing, died of an unknown cause while ascending a peak in Pakistan. Should the existence of an “accident” be determined by (a) the usage of the common law presumption in favor of an accident or (b) an inquiry into whether the insured failed to conduct himself as a “reasonable mountain climber”? II. A policy insuring against accidental death, which was subject to ERISA, did not define either “accident” or “accidental”. Should the policy be (a) deemed ambiguous and, therefore, (b) construed strictly against the insurer and in favor of the beneficiaries? Each of the foregoing questions is the subject of a circuit split.