Winslow v. Ids Life Ins. Co.

• Decision Date: 30 September 1998
• Docket Number: No. CIV. 3-96-75 (MJD/AJB).,CIV. 3-96-75 (MJD/AJB).
• Citation: 29 F.Supp.2d 557
• Parties: Susan WINSLOW, Plaintiff, v. IDS LIFE INSURANCE CO., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Minnesota

Page 557

29 F.Supp.2d 557

Susan WINSLOW, Plaintiff, v. IDS LIFE INSURANCE CO., Defendants.

No. CIV. 3-96-75 (MJD/AJB).

United States District Court, D. Minnesota.

September 30, 1998.

Roderick J. Macpherson III, Minnesota Disability Law Center, Minneapolis, MN, for Plaintiff.

John D. Thompson, Doreen A. Mohs, Rider, Bennett, Egan & Arundel, LLP, Minneapolis, MN, Carol Elizabeth Guy, Guy Law Office, Minneapolis, MN, Gary R. Irwin, American Express Financial Corp., Minneapolis, MN, for Defendants.

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

DAVIS, District Judge.

Susan M. Winslow filed this action for declaratory and injunctive relief and for damages under the Americans with Disabilities Act ("ADA"), 42 U.S.C. § 12101 et seq., and the Minnesota Human Rights Act ("MHRA"), Minn.Stat. § 363.01 et seq. when she applied for and was denied long-term disability insurance by IDS Life Insurance Co. due to her current history of treatment for a mental health condition. The matter is before the Court on Defendant's motion for summary judgment which, for the foregoing reasons, is denied in part and granted in part.

BACKGROUND

On approximately October 27, 1994, Plaintiff Susan Winslow applied to IDS Life Insurance Co. for standard long-term disability insurance or, in the alternative, long-term disability insurance with a rider excluding coverage for periods of disability due to her mental health condition. Plaintiff indicated on her application that she had been treated for mental illness — dysthymia or mild depression¹ — within the past year and was currently taking Zoloft, an anti-depressant. IDS refused both requests for insurance based on its policy of automatically denying long-term disability insurance to applicants who report having received treatment for a mental or nervous condition, regardless of seriousness, within the twelve months prior to application. IDS policy allows such applicants to be reconsidered for long-term disability insurance after a year has passed since their last treatment for a mental or nervous condition. IDS asserts that its above-stated policy is based on industry-wide claims experience and actuarial data that indicates that the highest number of payments are made for depression-related claims. Plaintiff notes, however, that the IDS policy differs from that in the Paul Revere Underwriting Manual-a manual used by IDS in making other underwriting decisions-which does not require automatic rejection of applicants with current histories of mental or nervous conditions, such as Plaintiff's dysthymia, but instead provides for a long-term disability insurance policy with a longer exclusion period. (Plaintiff's Mem. Opp. Summ. J. at 4).

Plaintiff received notice of the denial of her long-term disability insurance application in November 1994 and requested reconsideration. In her request for reconsideration Plaintiff asserted to IDS that she had never been hospitalized or missed work due to her mental health condition and provided corroborative letters from two psychiatrists from whom she had received treatment, affirming that Plaintiff suffered only mild symptoms, which did not manifest themselves in work situations. Plaintiff also submitted to IDS letters of support from former and current employers praising her work performance. IDS received Plaintiff's additional documents, and after internal discussions, agreed that denial of Plaintiff's application was appropriate.

DISCUSSION

I. Summary Judgment Standard

Summary judgment is appropriate if the record, when viewed in the light most favorable to the non-moving party, shows that there is no genuine issue of material fact and that the moving party is entitled to summary judgment as a matter of law. Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c); Celotex v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 322-23, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986); Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 249-250, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986); Unigroup, Inc. v. O'Rourke Storage & Transfer Co., 980 F.2d 1217, 1219-20 (8th Cir.1992); Aucutt v. Six Flags Over Mid-America, Inc., 85 F.3d 1311, 1315 (8th Cir. 1996). The burden of demonstrating the absence of any genuine issue of material fact rests on the moving party. Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(b); Celotex, 477 U.S. at 323, 106 S.Ct. 2548. To defeat summary judgment when a properly supported motion for summary judgment is made, however, the non-moving party must go beyond the pleadings and designate "specific facts showing that there is a genuine issue for trial." Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(e); Anderson, 477 U.S. at 250, 106 S.Ct. 2505.

II. Disability Under the ADA

In order to defeat summary judgment plaintiff Winslow must demonstrate that she is a person with a disability as defined by the ADA and therefore a plaintiff covered by the ADA. The ADA defines "disability" as "(A) a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more of the major life activities of such individual; (B) a record of such an impairment; or (C) being regarded as having such an impairment." 42 U.S.C. § 12102(2)(A)-(C). Winslow does not argue that she meets criteria (A) or (B) of the ADA definition. Instead, Plaintiff asserts that IDS regarded her as disabled and treated her as having "a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more of the major life activities," in this case, her future ability to work. See, Wooten v. Farmland Foods, 58 F.3d 382, 385 (8th Cir.1995), (citing 29 C.F.R. § 1630.2(1)(3)).

The relevant Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ("EEOC") regulations define "regarded as having an impairment" as:

(i) having a physical or mental impairment that does not substantially limit major life activities but that is treated by a private entity as constituting such a limitation; (ii) having a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits major life activities only as a result of the attitudes of others toward such impairment; (iii) having none of the impairments defined in ... [above] but treated by a private entity as having such an impairment.

Aucutt, 85 F.3d at 1319-1320 (citing 28 C.F.R. § 1630.2(1)-(3)). Both the ADA and

EEOC regulations establish that a plaintiff, such as Winslow, whose claim asserts only that she was regarded by a defendant as having a substantially limiting impairment, need not prove that she in fact suffered such impairment. As a result, although both parties present conflicting views as to whether Winslow's dysthymia falls within the ADA definition of "impairment," this Court need not reach the question and requires only that Plaintiff demonstrate that she was "regarded as having such an impairment" by IDS, as she so asserts.

Plaintiff claims that the "major life activity" that Defendant perceives as "substantially limited" by her dysthymia is her future ability to work. It is undisputed that work is a "major life activity," which if substantially limited or regarded as substantially limited by a significant impairment qualifies a person as disabled under the ADA. Wooten. 58 F.3d at 385, (citing 29 C.F.R. § 1630.2(i)); see also Thompson v. Holy Family Hospital, 121 F.3d 537, 541 (9th Cir.1997), (citing Gordon v. E.L. Hamm & Assocs., Inc., 100 F.3d 907, 913 (11th Cir.1996)).

This Court finds, as a matter of law, that when IDS denied Plaintiff Winslow's application for long-term disability insurance based on her depression and anxiety, diagnosed as dysthymia, IDS implicitly considered her to be "impaired" and likely unable to perform "either a class of jobs or a broad range of jobs in various classes" in the future. The Court finds that although no IDS documentation explicitly indicates that Plaintiff was regarded as disabled, perceptions regarding an applicant's future inability to work are the only logical criteria upon which denial of long-term disability insurance, which insures only against the loss of income caused by the inability to work due to a disability, would be based. The Court's finding is supported by Defendant's explanation for its eligibility criteria — that highest payments are going out for claims due to mental or nervous conditions.

Defendant asserts that even if Plaintiff can show that IDS regarded her as likely to suffer a substantially limiting impairment in the future, she has failed to show that IDS regarded her as disabled at the time it denied her application for long-term disability insurance as required by the statutory language of the ADA, which contains no future tense. See 42 U.S.C. § 12102(2)(C) ("regarded as having such an impairment")(emphasis added). In support of its narrow reading of the "regarded as" provision of the ADA, Defendant cites Glidden v. County of Monroe, 950 F.Supp. 73, 77 (W.D.N.Y.1997)(defendant's fear that plaintiff would suffer from a mental disability in the future did not render the ADA applicable) and Pater v. Deringer Mfg. Co., 1995 WL 530655 (N.D.Ill.) (the court was "not persuaded by Plaintiff's contention that the perception or fear that a future disability may occur should render the ADA applicable"). The courts in both Glidden and Pater, however, determined that plaintiffs had failed to make the threshold showing that defendants perceived that they suffered or would suffer disabilities. Therefore, determination as to whether the ADA would have applied to the defendants' hypothetical fear of a plaintiffs' future disabilities was merely dicta.

In Doukas v. Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, 1997 WL 833134 (D.N.H.), the court held that "the distinction between present and future limitations [in the ADA] is not dispositive." 1997 WL 833134 at *5. In Doukas, Plaintiff Susan Doukas applied for and was denied mortgage disability insurance by MetLife. MetLife based its denial on information in Doukas' application indicating that she had been diagnosed with and was being treated for bipolar disorder and was therefore likely to become totally disabled from work in the future. MetLife moved for summary judgment on the grounds that Doukas did not fall within the ADA...