Former NHL player loses round in disability benefits fight

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A federal district court in Texas has dismissed state law claims brought by a former professional hockey player seeking disability benefits under a disability insurance plan governed by the  Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (“ERISA”).

The case

Aaron Rome suffered a career-ending injury while playing professional hockey for the Dallas Stars of the National Hockey League (“NHL”). He sought disability benefits under an insurance policy issued by HCC Life Insurance Company to the NHL for the benefit of active NHL players. The policy had been established pursuant to a collective bargaining agreement (“CBA”) between the NHL and the National Hockey League Players’ Association (the “NHLPA”). Under the CBA, individual NHL club teams paid the cost of the benefits to a specific fund; the fund, administered by a board, then paid premiums to HCC.

HCC denied benefits to Mr. Rome. HCC later affirmed the denial of benefits pursuant to an administrative appeal process.

Mr. Rome sued HCC in Texas state court, bringing several state law claims against HCC.

HCC removed the suit to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas. HCC argued that because the policy was an employee welfare benefit plan governed by ERISA, federal law preempted Mr. Rome’s state law claims. It asked the district court to dismiss them.

The district court’s decision

The district court granted HCC’s motion.

In its decision, the district court first found that the HCC policy was an ERISA plan. It then pointed out that ERISA preempted any state law cause of action brought by an ERISA plan participant alleging improper processing of a claim for benefits. Preemption applied, the district court explained, because whether an individual had the right to receive benefits under the terms of an ERISA plan was “a question of exclusively federal concern.”

Accordingly, the district court decided that Mr. Rome’s state law causes of action against HCC were preempted as they related to the alleged mishandling of his claim for benefits under an ERISA plan.

Mr. Rome’s proper recourse, the district court concluded, was to plead a claim under ERISA against a proper ERISA defendant. The court granted him 30 days to do so.

The case is Rome v. HCC Life Ins. Co., No. 3:16-CV-02480-N (N.D. Tex. June 20, 2018). Attorneys involved include: For Aaron Rome, Plaintiff: Mark A Ticer, LEAD ATTORNEY, Law Office of Mark A Ticer, Dallas, TX; Jennifer Weber Johnson, Law Office of Mark A Ticer, Dallas, TX; John E Collins, Burleson Pate & Gibson LLP, Dallas, TX. For HCC Life Insurance Company, Defendant: Michael A Birrer, LEAD ATTORNEY, Carrington Coleman Sloman & Blumenthal, Dallas, TX; Jeffrey Matthew Brenner, Post & Schell PC, Philadelphia, PA; Joseph Rimac, Rimac Martin P.C., PRO HAC VICE, San Francisco, CA. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________

Steven A. Meyerowitz, Esq., is the Director of FC&S Legal, the Editor-in-Chief of the Insurance Coverage Law Report, and the Founder and President of Meyerowitz Communications Inc. As FC&S Legal Director, Mr. Meyerowitz, a member of the team that conceptualized FC&S Legal, provides daily analysis and commentary on the most significant insurance coverage law decisions from courts across the country and news regarding legislative and regulatory developments. A graduate of Harvard Law School, Mr. Meyerowitz was an attorney at a prominent Wall Street law firm before founding Meyerowitz Communications Inc., a law firm marketing communications consulting company.