Loguidice v. Metropolitan Life Ins. Co.

• Decision Date: 14 July 2003
• Docket Number: No. 02-2538.,02-2538.
• Citation: 336 F.3d 1
• Parties: Brenda LOGUIDICE, Plaintiff, Appellant, v. METROPOLITAN LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY and Steven Anastasia, Defendants, Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — First Circuit

Page 1

336 F.3d 1

Brenda LOGUIDICE, Plaintiff, Appellant, v. METROPOLITAN LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY and Steven Anastasia, Defendants, Appellees.

No. 02-2538.

United States Court of Appeals, First Circuit.

Heard May 9, 2003.

Decided July 14, 2003.

Kenneth R. Behrend, with whom Behrend & Ernsberger, P.C., were on brief, for appellant.

B. John Pendleton, Jr., with whom McCarter & English, LLP, were on brief, for appellees.

Before LIPEZ, Circuit Judge, PORFILIO,^* Senior Circuit Judge, and HOWARD, Circuit Judge.

HOWARD, Circuit Judge.

Plaintiff Brenda Loguidice appeals the district court's entry of summary judgment in favor of defendants Metropolitan Life Insurance Company ("MetLife") and Steven Anastasia on the ground that her claims against them were brought after the expiration of the applicable Massachusetts statute of limitations. The principal issue is whether Loguidice has adduced evidence from which a fact finder could conclude that her otherwise untimely claims are saved by the Commonwealth's "discovery rule." While we are troubled by the alleged events giving rise to this lawsuit, we see no basis for applying the discovery rule to Loguidice's claims. We therefore affirm the district court's judgment.

I.

We primarily take the facts from the first of the district court's two summary judgment rulings, see infra, construing the record in the light most favorable to Loguidice and resolving all factual disputes in her favor. E.g., Dwan v. City of Boston, 329 F.3d 275, 277 (1st Cir.2003). In any event, most of the following facts are undisputed.

At some point in 1991, Loguidice, a nurse and the divorced mother of two, received a letter from MetLife's South East Home Office in Tampa, Florida. The letter encouraged Loguidice to learn more about a "retirement plan" that MetLife had designed especially for nurses. At the time, nurses frequently lacked retirement plans at their places of employment. Loguidice expressed interest in learning more about MetLife's program. In November 1991, Anastasia, who was then an account representative working out of MetLife's Tampa office, visited Loguidice in her home in Agawam, Massachusetts.

During the meeting, Anastasia held himself out as a specialist in retirement programs designed to meet the needs of nurses. He presented Loguidice with a scripted sales pitch, using a folder of information (including newspaper articles and promotional materials) that was arranged so as to emphasize to nurses the importance of retirement planning and the strengths of MetLife. Within the twenty-two pages of material that comprised the folder, there is very little mention of life insurance. This is more than a little surprising because Anastasia's objective was to sell Loguidice a whole life insurance policy.¹

At some point during the meeting, the issue of life insurance did come up. Loguidice conceded in her deposition that Anastasia informed her (after she had told him that she did not want or need life insurance) that there was a life insurance component to the plan. Documentary evidence reveals that Anastasia also asked Loguidice a number of the health and lifestyle questions that typically are asked in connection with applications for life insurance. Nonetheless, Anastasia's emphasis was at all times on the retirement planning in which Loguidice had expressed an interest. At the conclusion of the meeting, Loguidice signed a document with the heading "Application for Life Insurance" that authorized MetLife to deduct $100 per month from her checking account to pay the premiums on a whole life policy with a face value of $52,096. Because Loguidice was rushing to bring the meeting to a conclusion, she did not read the application. Instead, she merely signed on the signature line at which Anastasia was pointing.

After making the sale, Anastasia left Loguidice with a brochure titled "Nurses Insured Retirement Plan." The brochure mirrored the folder in that it emphasized retirement planning and barely even hinted that "the plan" was, in actuality, a life insurance policy. For example, the brochure stated that "Metropolitan's Nurses Insured Retirement Plan is a convenient way for you to accumulate cash for the future you deserve," and that "we can help you build a solid foundation of financial security with our Nurses Insured Retirement Plan, which can help you accumulate the money you need, tax-deferred, for your retirement years." The closest the brochure came to indicating that the plan was no more than a whole life policy is a statement included in an itemized summary of five benefits of the "new [our emphasis] Insured Retirement plan": "[The plan provides t]ax deferred accumulation while providing a life insurance benefit."

Two weeks after their initial meeting, Anastasia returned to Loguidice's home to deliver "the plan" she had purchased. Anastasia had with him a folder containing the same documents that he had used in his previous presentation. On a computer print-out near the back, Anastasia had highlighted the anticipated value of "the plan" when Loguidice turned 65 — $66,699 — under a column titled "Illustrative Cash Value." During this second meeting (which was quite brief), Anastasia showed Loguidice the highlighted figure. But Anastasia did not review the details of the actual insurance policy that Loguidice had purchased. Instead, he tucked the policy itself into a sleeve in the back of the folder and left the folder with Loguidice. Loguidice did not look at the folder again until after she had filed suit some four and one-half years later.

For approximately the next two and one-half years, Loguidice made her monthly $100 premium payments. During this time, Loguidice did not know that she was making premium payments on a whole life insurance policy. Rather, she thought that she was contributing to a "retirement plan" with a life insurance component. Then, in May 1994, Loguidice read a newspaper article detailing an impending class-action settlement involving MetLife and nurses who had purchased whole life policies after being led to believe that they were investing in retirement or savings plans. Shortly thereafter, Loguidice stopped paying her monthly premiums and called MetLife to ask that her policy be cancelled. MetLife did not cancel Loguidice's policy. Instead, per language in the policy governing unpaid premiums, MetLife began using the cash value that had accumulated in the policy to pay Loguidice's premiums as they became due. On September 18, 1996, with its accumulated cash value exhausted, the policy lapsed.

Loguidice opted out of the class-action settlement and, in May 1996, initiated this diversity action in the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania. Her complaint asserted claims for breach of contract; breach of the duty of good faith and fair dealing; fraud and deceit; negligent supervision; negligent misrepresentation; negligence per se; breach of fiduciary duty; and violation of various Massachusetts consumer protection statutes.² Following a transfer to the district court from which this appeal was taken and the close of discovery, MetLife moved for summary judgment, challenging the viability of the claims on evidentiary and, as to Loguidice's tort and statutory claims, statute of limitations grounds. Anastasia, acting pro se, joined in MetLife's motion. On March 16, 1999, the court granted the motion on all claims except those for fraud and deceit, breach of fiduciary duty, and violation of one of the consumer protection statutes identified in the complaint, Mass. Gen. Laws Ann. ch. 93A. As to these claims, the court concluded that the evidence was sufficient to warrant a trial and that the claims were brought within the applicable limitations period. In reaching the latter conclusion, the court determined that the claims, while sounding in tort, were essentially contractual in nature. See Hendrickson v. Sears, 365 Mass. 83, 310 N.E.2d 131, 132 (1974) (observing that the "gist of the action or the essential nature of the plaintiff's claim" rather than "the form of proceeding" determines the applicable statute of limitations) (internal quotation marks omitted). Therefore, the court decided, the claims were governed by the six-year statute of limitations generally applicable to actions for contractual damages, Mass. Gen. Laws Ann. ch. 260, § 2 (1992), and not the three-year statute generally used in tort actions and contract actions for personal injuries, Mass. Gen. Laws Ann. ch. 260, § 2A (1992), or the four-year statute usually applied to actions under ch. 93A, Mass. Gen. Laws Ann. ch. 260, § 5A (1992). Because the claims were brought four and one-half years after Anastasia delivered the policy to Loguidice, they were timely under the court's reasoning.

In March 2002, MetLife filed a second motion for summary judgment on Loguidice's remaining claims, which the district court treated as having been filed on behalf of Anastasia as well. The motion contended that two decisions handed down by the Appeals Division of the Massachusetts District Court after the initial summary judgment decision required the court to revisit its earlier statute of limitations ruling. The cases in question had held that the two-year limitations period in Mass. Gen. Laws Ann. ch. 175, § 181 (1998) (permitting, inter alia, persons induced to purchase insurance policies based on misrepresentations concerning their terms to sue and recover premiums), applies to all claims mirroring the cause of action set forth in the statute, even if those claims are brought under the common law or Mass. Gen. Laws Ann. ch. 93A. See Grande v. PFL Life Ins. Co., No. 9663, 2000 WL 1476676 at *2 (Mass.App.Div. Sep. 27, 2000) (applying the Hendrickson rule and emphasizing that the "gravamen of [the] complaint" and not the form in which it designates its claims controls for statute of limitations purposes) (internal quotation marks and citation omitted); see also ...