Allen v. U.S., 83-2361

• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (8th Circuit)
• Writing for the Court: Before ROSS, McMILLIAN and FAGG; PER CURIAM
• Citation: 732 F.2d 107
• Parties: Mary Lou ALLEN, Appellant, v. UNITED STATES of America, United States Office of Personnel Management and Donald J. Devine, Appellees.
• Docket Number: No. 83-2361,83-2361
• Decision Date: 16 April 1984

Page 107

732 F.2d 107 Mary Lou ALLEN, Appellant,
v.
UNITED STATES of America, United States Office of Personnel
Management and Donald J. Devine, Appellees. No. 83-2361. United States Court of Appeals,
Eighth Circuit. Submitted April 10, 1984.
Decided April 16, 1984.

Laurence D. Mass, Donna L. Aronoff, Wolff & Frankel, Clayton, Mo., for appellant.

Thomas E. Dittmeier, U.S. Atty., Bruce D. White, Asst. U.S. Atty., St. Louis, Mo., for appellees.

Before ROSS, McMILLIAN and FAGG, Circuit Judges.

PER CURIAM.

Mary Lou Allen appeals from a final order of the District Court ¹ for the Eastern District of Missouri partially granting the government's motion for summary judgment. For reversal appellant argues that the district court erred as a matter of law in finding that she was not entitled to nongroup health insurance coverage at the same level of benefits available to her while she was a federal employee. For the reasons discussed below, we affirm the order of the district court.

The facts underlying this appeal are fully set forth in the district court's opinion and need not be repeated at length here. Allen v. United States, 572 F.Supp. 185 (E.D.Mo.1983). In brief, appellant retired from the United States Postal Service in July 1981 as a result of disability and attempted to convert her federal group health insurance coverage under the American Postal Workers Union Plan (APWU plan) to a nongroup plan. The APWU plan was one of several Health Benefits Plans available to federal employees and annuitants established by contract between the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and insurance carriers pursuant to the Federal Employees Health Benefits Act, 5 U.S.C. Secs. 8901-8913 (1982) (FEHBA).

On a form dated September 10, 1981, OPM notified appellant that her health insurance coverage had terminated effective July 25, 1981, but that she could still automatically convert to a nongroup health insurance plan within fifteen days from the date of the notice. Appellant claimed that

Page 108

she never received this notice and did not become aware her health coverage had terminated until October 1981, when it was too late to exercise her conversion option. Appellant then instituted this action.

The government offered to settle the case by allowing appellant to exercise her option to convert to the APWU nongroup plan. When appellant learned that the APWU nongroup plan offered substantially lower benefits than the APWU group plan, ² she refused to...