White v. Sun Life Assur. Co. of Canada, 06-1285.

Citation488 F.3d 240
Decision Date26 April 2007
Docket NumberNo. 06-1491.,No. 06-1285.,06-1285.,06-1491.
PartiesMargaret T. WHITE, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. SUN LIFE ASSURANCE COMPANY OF CANADA, Defendant-Appellant, and Greer Laboratories, Incorporated; Greer Laboratories, Incorporated Employee Long Term Disability Plan; Plan Administrator of the Greer Laboratories, Incorporated Long Term Disability Plan, Defendants. Margaret T. White, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada, Defendant-Appellant, and Greer Laboratories, Incorporated; Greer Laboratories, Incorporated Employee Long Term Disability Plan; Plan Administrator of the Greer Laboratories, Incorporated Long Term Disability Plan, Defendants.
CourtUnited States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (4th Circuit)

ARGUED: Mark Eugene Schmidtke, Schmidtke Hoeppner Consultants, L.L.P., Valparaiso, Indiana, for Appellant. Charles McBrayer Sasser, Charlotte, North Carolina, for Appellee. ON BRIEF: Anuja G. Purohit, Poyner & Spruill, Raleigh, North Carolina, for Appellant. Thomas L. Hudson, Osborn Maledon, P.A., Phoenix, Arizona, for Appellee.

Before WILKINS, Chief Judge, WILKINSON, Circuit Judge, and Henry F. FLOYD, United States District Judge for the District of South Carolina, sitting by designation.

Affirmed by published opinion. Judge WILKINSON wrote the majority opinion, in which Judge FLOYD joined. Chief Judge WILKINS wrote a dissenting opinion.

OPINION

WILKINSON, Circuit Judge:

This case requires us to determine whether a benefit plan can start the statute of limitations running on a plan participant's cause of action for benefits under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), 29 U.S.C. §§ 1001 et seq. (2000), before the plan participant can even file suit. Plaintiff-appellee Margaret T. White brought suit against defendant-appellant Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada "to recover benefits due to [her] under the terms of [her] plan" for disability insurance. 29 U.S.C. § 1132(a)(1)(B). Sun Life seeks to bar this federal claim based upon a provision in the plan's governing document stating, "No legal action may start . . . more than 3 years after the time Proof of Claim is required." A plan participant applies for benefits by filing a proof of claim, but she may not bring a legal action until her plan has reached a final decision denying benefits.

We agree with the district court that ERISA's remedies framework does not permit a plan to start the clock on a claimant's cause of action before the claimant may file suit. We also agree that Sun Life erred in denying White disability benefits, and therefore affirm the decision below.

I.
A.

Plaintiff Margaret White received long-term disability insurance from Sun Life under a plan provided through her family's business, Greer Laboratories, Inc., where she worked from 1984 until 2000. White resigned on February 11, 2000 from the position of vice president of administration, in which her duties had included coordinating the work of staff, reviewing subordinates' work, and attending management meetings.

After leaving Greer Laboratories, White filed an application for disability benefits with Sun Life, claiming total disability. Sun Life's provision for total disability provides monthly payments to a covered employee who "because of Injury or Sickness, is unable to perform all of the material and substantial duties of his own occupation." The policy defines "Injury" as "bodily impairment resulting directly from an accident and independently of all other causes" and "Sickness" as "illness, disease or pregnancy."

White based her claim upon chronic pain from piriformis syndrome, a neuromuscular disorder that occurs when the piriformis muscle compresses or irritates the sciatic nerve. White reported that she experienced lower back pain radiating down her right leg after performing household labor in August of 1997, and that this evolved into a chronic pain and, over time, moved to her left leg.

In 1997, White sought help from Dr. David Jones, a board-certified neurosurgeon. She began to see a pain management specialist, Dr. Felicia Cain, the following year. The doctors were unable to pinpoint the source of White's pain, despite diagnostic steps such as an MRI scan, CT scan, and myelogram. White was prescribed pain medication and muscle relaxants, but she reported that her pain worsened despite these treatments.

Dr. Jones referred White for a surgical consultation with David Kline, chairman of the neurosurgery department at Louisiana State University, whom Dr. Jones described as "a nationally recognized expert in the surgical treatment of peripheral nerve disorders." Dr. Kline warned White that surgery would not necessarily be a cure, describing "the possibility of not helping, and the possibility of deficits." White chose to undergo surgery nonetheless on April 21, 1999. Dr. Kline wrote that the surgery revealed a serious physical abnormality. The piriformis muscle "was quite deformed and tethering the peroneal nerve division, which it had split, and was running in between." Dr. Kline resectioned the piriformis muscle and removed tissue from around the sciatic nerve.

After surgery, White reported initial improvement in June and early July of 1999. By July 23, however, she was again reporting significant pain as well as depression. Dr. Cain wrote that day that "[p]iriformis syndrome [was] still causing the patient a great deal of pain," and that White had "an extreme amount of depression secondary to her inability to do anything and pain and inability to sleep." She increased White's dosages of a painkiller and an antidepressant, and had White sign a narcotics contract regarding her use of the medications.

White's July appointment with Dr. Cain was not the only occasion on which a doctor observed that the claimant suffered from depression. Dr. Cain diagnosed depression again on September 22, 1999, for instance, and wrote that White suffered from "problems at work as well as at home secondary to pain and its limitations on her life." Dr. David Abernathy, a long-time physician of White's, wrote during the summer after White's surgery that he did not "see a way around" White's medications. "Maggie complains of a lot of pain that is seemingly not understood according to her by her family," he noted. "She is in an executive position in a company here that is family owned and has been given almost some ultimatums about leaving the company."

Both Dr. Jones and Dr. Cain wrote that the patient was still struggling with pain in the summer and fall. While White had gradually returned to work and was working five days a week in October of 1999, Dr. Jones wrote in October that the patient was "going to cut back to 3 days a week beginning soon" and added, "I think this would help her." He wrote that the patient "continues to take fairly hefty doses" of pain medicines under the supervision of Dr. Cain but that White "has managed very well with this" and was adhering to her narcotic contract with Dr. Cain. Nevertheless, White told Dr. Cain on February 3, 2000 that she was unable to sit for any length of time, and that the only way she could relieve pain was to lie on her right side. Dr. Cain added, "[A]lthough she continues to try to function in a full-time capacity, she feels this is becoming intolerable secondary to pain."

White left work that month, on February 11. She continued to see her doctors after leaving Greer Laboratories, and Sun Life relies heavily on a letter generated during one such visit as supporting its denial of benefits. Dr. Kline wrote to Dr. Jones on March 20, 2000, after seeing White for a follow-up appointment:

She has had inexplicable buttock level pain and sciatica for a number of years . . . [A]fter some relief of her pain in the buttock, it has come back. She also has some low back pain and some pain occasionally on the anterior side of the thigh. It occasionally goes all the way to the calf. She has stopped her work, but that is more because of familial problems and work problems than her disability and difficulty with her back and leg. She is tender in the low back, particularly to the left . . . She has decreased range of motion to the back particularly full flexion. Straight leg raising gives mainly low back rather than buttock or leg pain. This is so also with reverse straight leg raising.

Dr. Kline described White's "sciatic function" on the right and left sides as "excellent . . . grading 5/5." He wrote, "I think pain management we will leave in your hands," but recommended swimming and physical therapy exercises. "We will see her again in six months and only wish there was more we could do for her," Dr. Kline wrote.

Dr. Jones spoke with White via phone on March 28, leading him to write that White "continues to be miserable. She is considering applying for long term disability, and at this point I think that is probably the only option left to her." Dr. Jones also noted that White had undergone another MRI scan, which showed "no change" from the scan before surgery in 1998.

Dr. Cain wrote that month that White's pain had worsened since surgery and that the patient still required large doses of pain medications and was experiencing "a great deal of distress secondary to this illness." She suggested White seek treatment for depression, which White declined because she did not believe it would help. Dr. Cain increased White's dosage of pain medication on that visit, and White reported an improvement in her condition in April, when Dr. Cain wrote that the patient "appears to have seen an increase in her affect as well as decrease in depression" since leaving her job. White described similar levels of pain during the summer of 2000, but Dr. Cain wrote that White was still only "able to be active 2-3 hours per day and then must rest in order to decrease pain."

B.

White applied for long-term disability benefits in an application dated May 5, 2000. Dr. Jones stated in support of...

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