Metropolitan Life Ins. v. Bancorp Services, L.L.C.

• Decision Date: 02 June 2008
• Docket Number: No. 2007-1312.,2007-1312.
• Citation: 527 F.3d 1330
• Parties: METROPOLITAN LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. BANCORP SERVICES, L.L.C. and Benefit Finance Partners, L.L.C., Defendants-Appellants.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Federal Circuit

527 F.3d 1330

METROPOLITAN LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. BANCORP SERVICES, L.L.C. and Benefit Finance Partners, L.L.C., Defendants-Appellants.

No. 2007-1312.

United States Court of Appeals, Federal Circuit.

June 2, 2008.

Joseph R. Guerra, Sidley Austin LLP, of Washington, DC, argued for plaintiff-appellee. With him on the brief was Robert A. Parker.

Charles K. Verhoeven, Quinn Emanuel Urquhart Oliver & Hedges, LLP, of San Francisco, California, argued for defendants-appellants. With him on the brief were David A. Perlson; and Patrick M. Shields and William A. Morehead, of Los Angeles, California.

Before MAYER, DYK, and MOORE, Circuit Judges.

DYK, Circuit Judge.

Appellants Bancorp Services, L.L.C., and Benefit Finance Partners, L.L.C., (collectively "Bancorp") appeal the order of the District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri granting summary judgment that appellee Metropolitan Life Insurance Company ("MetLife") did not infringe U.S. Patent No. 5,926,792 ("the '792 patent").

We conclude that the district court, in granting summary judgment of noninfringement, properly construed the phrase "calculating surrender value protected investment credits" ("SVPICs") as meaning that "the accused system or method must calculate the difference between the `book value' and the `market value,'" of a stable value insurance policy. Metro. Life Ins. Co. v. Bancorp Servs. L.L.C., 421 F.Supp.2d 1196 (E.D.Mo. 2006) ("MetLife II"). However, we also conclude that the district court erred in denying additional discovery and that, even on the present record, Bancorp raised a genuine issue of material fact as to the issue of infringement. Accordingly, we vacate the judgment of noninfringement and remand for proceedings consistent with this opinion.

BACKGROUND

The '792 patent concerns a "[m]ethod and system to track, reconcile and administer the values of life insurance policies." '792 patent at [57]. The invention concerns a method and system to administer a specific type of life insurance policy that is often purchased by businesses on the lives of their employees, known as Business Owned Life Insurance ("BOLI") policies. The business pays an additional premium beyond that required to fund the death benefit, and specifies the types of assets in which the additional value is invested. Businesses often use these policies as a tax-advantaged means to fund post-retirement benefits for their employees.¹

One problem with such policies arises from the fact that accounting rules require that the policy owner report the cash surrender value of the policy, which varies substantially with the volatile market value of the underlying securities. Businesses would prefer to report a more predictable value in their financial statements. This problem may be avoided by purchasing a stable value protected ("SVP") policy that includes a separate insurance policy, sometimes called wrap insurance or a wrap product, that guarantees the surrender value of the SVP portion of the investment based on a targeted rate of return, which is reset over time. Over a long period of time, the guaranteed value is expected to conform to the market price of the underlying investment. This SVP feature allows the owner of an SVP BOLI insurance policy to report a smoothed, guaranteed value ("book value"), rather than the volatile market value of the SVP assets, on its financial statements. Insurance companies that write and administer SVP BOLI insurance policies need to calculate, among other things, the difference between the market value and book value of the SVP investment. As this court previously explained, the '792 "patent provides a computerized means for tracking the book value and market value of the policies and calculating the credits representing the amount the stable value protected writer must guarantee and pay should the policy be paid out prematurely." Bancorp Servs. LLC v. Hartford Life Ins. Co., 359 F.3d 1367, 1369 (Fed.Cir.2004) ("Hartford").

Bancorp, the owner of the '792 patent, accused MetLife of infringement. In February 2000, MetLife filed an action in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York seeking, among other relief, a declaratory judgment of noninfringement and invalidity of the '792 patent. MetLife's action was transferred to the Eastern District of Missouri in December 2000, where three actions relating to the '792 patent were already pending. On February 13, 2002, the district court ruled in one of the other pending actions, Bancorp Services, LLC v. Hartford Life Insurance Co., No. 4:00-CV-70, 2002 WL 32727072 that the '792 patent was invalid because the phrase "surrender value protected investment credits," (a phrase appearing in each independent claim of the '792 patent) was indefinite. The accused infringer in that action (Hartford Life Insurance Company), appealed to this court. The district court, by order dated March 19, 2003, stayed MetLife's action pending the outcome of that appeal. This court reversed the district court's indefiniteness judgment on March 1, 2004. Hartford, 359 F.3d at 1376. Bancorp then filed an infringement action against MetLife, and the district court later consolidated this new action with the stayed declaratory judgment action previously filed by MetLife.

The stay was lifted in February of 2005. Discovery had taken place in the MetLife declaratory judgment action, but no discovery schedule had been set in the Bancorp infringement action, and no significant discovery, if any at all, had occurred in that action. Shortly after the stay was lifted, in April 2005, MetLife moved for summary judgment of noninfringement. MetLife's motion was supported by affidavits of Sebastian Janssen and Shelley Lang stating that MetLife did not calculate SVPICs (that is, "surrender value protected investment credits"). By letter dated June 7, 2005, Bancorp requested depositions, including depositions of Janssen and Lang, and document discovery from MetLife concerning the accused SVP policy administration components of MetLife's Vantage system, which were not implemented until at least sometime in 2002. MetLife agreed to start producing some of the requested documents, but denied Bancorp's requested depositions.

In June 2005, Bancorp filed a motion pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(f), seeking additional discovery to respond to MetLife's summary judgment motion, accompanied by a declaration explaining why it could not present essential facts in opposition to the motion for summary judgment until the completion of the requested discovery. In particular, Bancorp sought a stay pending depositions of the declarants offered in support of MetLife's motion for summary judgment, Janssen and Lang. Bancorp at approximately the same time filed an opposition to the summary judgment motion.

On January 5, 2006, the district court denied Bancorp's Rule 56(f) motion, reasoning that Bancorp was not entitled to any depositions or additional document discovery because it had not shown that MetLife's declarants would contradict their declarations if deposed and had not shown that additional document discovery would lead to relevant evidence of infringement in light of MetLife's declarations.

Bancorp seeks to depose several of MetLife's current and former employees who have knowledge of MetLife's SV COLI/BOLI administration system. Again, Bancorp offers little in the way of support, declaring only that it is likely such witnesses would testify that, contrary to the declarations by Lang and Janssen, MetLife's system does indeed calculate surrender value protected investment credits. To the extent that Bancorp's request to take depositions depends upon its contention that Lang and Janssen committed perjury, the Court has already rejected that claim.

Metro. Life Ins. Co. v. Bancorp Servs. L.L.C., No. 4:00-CV-1927, slip op. at 10-11 (E.D.Mo. Jan. 5, 2006) ("MetLife I") (emphasis added). However, the district court granted Bancorp an opportunity to supplement its opposition to the summary judgment motion based on the source code for the Vantage software, which was ultimately provided to Bancorp only days before its opposition was due (and which was critical to understanding both the functioning of the Vantage system and many of the documents regarding that system that MetLife had produced). Bancorp filed an affidavit of its expert, David Klausner, indicating his conclusion that the Vantage system either directly calculated SVPICs or exported data to spreadsheets that made these calculations. MetLife subsequently filed responsive declarations by Lang and Janssen contesting Klausner's analysis.

On March 13, 2006, the district court denied MetLife's motion for summary judgment. The court construed the disputed claim term, "surrender value protected investment credits," based on this court's opinion in Hartford to require that "the accused system or method . . . calculate the difference between the `book value' [of the protected investment] and the `market value,' (also known as the `wrap asset' or `wrap security')." MetLife II, 421 F.Supp.2d at 1199. Under this claim construction, the court reasoned that Klausner's affidavit raised a material question of fact as to infringement, based on at least one module of the Vantage source code that "calculates the ratio of market value over book value, which Mr. Klausner asserts may then be used to calculate the difference between book value and market value." Id. at 1199. Accordingly, the court denied MetLife's motion for summary judgment of noninfringement.

MetLife moved for reconsideration, and, by order dated February 6, 2007, the district court granted reconsideration and granted summary judgment of noninfringement in favor of MetLife. The court concluded that its prior denial of MetLife's motion for summary judgment "rested upon a manifest error of fact." Metropolitan Life Ins. Co. v. Bancorp Servs. LLC, No. 4:00-CV-1927, slip op. at 1 (E.D.Mo....