Williamson v. UNUM Life Ins. Co. of America, 97-56164

• Decision Date: 24 November 1998
• Docket Number: No. 97-56164,97-56164
• Citation: 160 F.3d 1247
• Parties: 22 Employee Benefits Cas. 2419, 98 Daily Journal D.A.R. 11,954 Sherry L. WILLIAMSON, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. UNUM LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY OF AMERICA, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit

Page 1247

160 F.3d 1247

22 Employee Benefits Cas. 2419,

98 Daily Journal D.A.R. 11,954

Sherry L. WILLIAMSON, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. UNUM LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY OF AMERICA, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 97-56164.

United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit.

Argued and Submitted Oct. 9, 1998.

Decided Nov. 24, 1998.

Russell G. Petti, Bannon, Green, Smith, Frank & Rimac, Los Angeles, California; Tamarra T. Rennick, UNUM Life Insurance Company of America, Portland, Maine, for the defendant-appellant.

Sharon J. Arkin, Shernoff, Bidart, Darras & Arkin, Claremont, California, for the plaintiff-appellee.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Central District of California Dean D. Pregerson, District Judge, Presiding. D.C. No. CV-96-06070-DDP

Before: MELVIN BRUNETTI, FERDINAND F. FERNANDEZ, and M. MARGARET MCKEOWN, Circuit Judges.

BRUNETTI, Circuit Judge:

Appellee, Sherry Williamson, filed this lawsuit after Appellant, UNUM Life Insurance Company of America, canceled the benefits she was receiving under a long term disability plan issued by UNUM to Williamson's employer. UNUM appeals from two district court orders granting Williamson partial summary judgment on the issue of the proper standard of review and the issue of cooperation. We dismiss UNUM's appeal for lack of jurisdiction.

BACKGROUND

Appellee, Sherry Williamson, began working for Landmark Land Company, Inc. in 1981. Because of her employment with Landmark, Williamson was covered by a long term disability insurance plan issued to Landmark by UNUM Life Insurance Company of America.

Two months after she suffered injuries in an automobile accident, Williamson found that she was unable to perform her duties at Landmark because of those injuries. In October 1991, she submitted a claim for disability benefits to UNUM alleging that she was permanently disabled from brain injuries she suffered in the automobile accident. UNUM began paying benefits to Williamson once UNUM received the required documentation of Williamson's disability.

UNUM eventually terminated Williamson's disability benefits claiming that, despite numerous request for information, Williamson failed to provide the necessary documentation regarding her continued disability. Williamson contends that she provided UNUM with all the necessary information.

Williamson commenced this lawsuit seeking declaratory relief, injunctive relief, recovery of benefits, and attorneys' fees. After Williamson filed this lawsuit, UNUM filed a motion seeking a partial summary judgment order declaring that the standard of review the district court would employ would be abuse of discretion. The district court denied UNUM's motion and sua sponte granted partial summary judgment in favor of Williamson holding that de novo review was the proper standard of review to be employed by After UNUM's motion for partial summary judgment on the proper standard of review was denied, UNUM filed a second motion for summary judgment arguing that UNUM was entitled to cancel Williamson's benefit payments in December of 1993 because Williamson failed to cooperate with UNUM as required by the policy. The district court, employing the de novo standard of review, denied UNUM's motion for summary judgment and sua sponte granted Williamson partial summary judgment on the issue of cooperation. The district court concluded that, as a matter of law, UNUM was not entitled to terminate Williamson's benefits based on an alleged failure to cooperate because Williamson had provided UNUM with a written authorization that permitted UNUM to obtain the information it needed.

the district court in this case. The district court reasoned that the disability plan did not confer discretion on UNUM and, therefore, UNUM was not entitled to abuse of discretion review.

Because the plan administrator never reached the merits of Williamson's claim for benefits, the district court remanded Williamson's claim "to the plan administrator to supplement the administrative record and make a determination of whether Plaintiff continued to be disabled from the time her benefits were suspended to the present." UNUM appeals from the two district court orders granting Williamson partial summary judgment and remanding Williamson's claim to the plan administrator.

DISCUSSION

The issue of appellate jurisdiction must always be resolved before the merits of an appeal are examined or addressed. In re Pizza of Hawaii, Inc., 761 F.2d 1374, 1377 (9th Cir.1985). Jurisdiction is never to be assumed, and in every case, jurisdiction must exist by way of some affirmative source.

A. Section 1291 and the Final Judgment Rule

Appellate jurisdiction generally arises from 28 U.S.C. § 1291. The final judgment rule, which is embodied in 28 U.S.C. § 1291, empowers the circuit courts to hear appeals from all final judgments issued by the district courts. Dannenberg v. Software Toolworks Inc., 16 F.3d 1073, 1074 (9th Cir.1994). A final judgment is " 'a decision by the District Court that ends the litigation on the merits and leaves nothing for the court to do but execute the judgment.' " Id. (quoting Coopers & Lybrand v. Livesay, 437 U.S. 463, 467, 98 S.Ct. 2454, 57 L.Ed.2d 351 (1978)). Orders granting partial summary judgment are, absent special circumstances, not appealable final orders under § 1291 because partial summary judgment orders do not dispose of all claims and do not end the litigation on the merits. Service Employees International Union, Local 102 v. County of San Diego, 60 F.3d 1346, 1349 (9th Cir.1994) (hereinafter SEIU, Local 102 ); Cheng v. Commissioner Internal Revenue Service, 878 F.2d 306, 309 (9th Cir.1989). The district court's orders granting Williamson partial summary judgment are not appealable final orders unless they present the special circumstances which warrant a finding of practical finality.

Special circumstances warrant a conclusion of practical finality in regard to a partial summary judgment order when:

(1) the case was a marginally final order, (2) disposed of an unsettled issue of national significance, (3) review implemented the same policy Congress sought to promote in § 1292(b), and (4) the finality issue was not presented to the appellate court until argument on the merits, thereby ensuring that policies of judicial economy would not be served by remanding the case with an important unresolved issue.

SEIU, Local 102, 60 F.3d at 1350 (internal quotation marks omitted). These special circumstances create only a very narrow exception to the final judgment rule. All Alaskan Seafoods, Inc. v. M/V Sea Producer, 882 F.2d 425, 428 n. 2 (9th Cir.1989). The district court's partial summary judgment orders in this case do not present the type of special circumstances which satisfy the practical finality exception to the final judgment rule.

Neither grant of partial summary judgment was marginally final because the district court did not resolve Williamson's claims for injunctive relief, declaratory relief, or disability benefits. Without ever reaching the merits of Williamson's claim, the district court remanded the claim to the plan administrator for a determination of whether Williamson was disabled and, if so, the amount of the benefits to which she would be entitled under the plan. Neither partial summary judgment order determined an issue of national significance because both partial summary judgment orders addressed issues that were specific to the facts of this case. The first partial summary judgment order focused on the policy language at issue in this case and the second partial summary judgment order focused on the specific actions of Williamson and UNUM. The finality issue was presented to this Court before argument on the merits and review at this time would not advance the policies of 28 U.S.C. § 1292(b). The issue of the proper standard of review is not fully dispositive of all the issues in this case, and the cooperation issue may be dispositive if Williamson failed to cooperate, but, if she did cooperate, then there must still be a determination on the merits of whether she is entitled to benefits. The circumstances of this case do not warrant a finding of practical finality.

Contrary to UNUM's assertions, appellate jurisdiction in this case cannot be predicated on Ninth Circuit case law that permits, under certain circumstances, a party to appeal an order remanding a case to an administrative agency. A district court order that remands a case to an administrative agency is appealable only when: " '(1) the district court order conclusively resolve [d] a separable legal issue, (2) the remand order forces the agency to apply a potentially erroneous rule which may result in a wasted proceeding, and (3) review would, as a practical matter, be foreclosed if an immediate appeal were unavailable.' " Rendleman v. Shalala, 21 F.3d 957, 959 n. 1 (9th Cir.1994) (quoting Chugach Alaska Corp. v. Lujan, 915 F.2d 454, 457 (9th Cir.1990)). The district court's order remanding Williamson's claim to the plan administrator does not satisfy the requirements stated in Rendleman. ¹

Because the district court has not yet entered a final judgment pursuant to Rule 58 nor directed the entry of a judgment on the standard of review and cooperation issues pursuant to Rule 54(b) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, review of the district court's orders will not be foreclosed if this appeal is dismissed. See Stewart Title & Trust of Phoenix v. Ordean, 528 F.2d 894, 897 n. 1 (9th Cir.1976) (partial summary judgment orders are reviewable on appeal from final judgment). In spite of the district court's remand, because fewer than all of the claims of the parties have been decided by the district court's two partial summary judgment orders, the action has not terminated as to any of the claims and the district court orders are subject to revision at any time prior to the entry of judgment adjudicating all of the claims. Fed.R.Civ.P. 54(b).

The...