Court Allows ERISA Plan Participants to Sue Administrator for Physicians' Actions

Extract

On December 7, 1994, the U.S. District Court of the Northern District of Illinois ruled that ERISA preempts a participant in an ERISA plan from suing the plan's administrator under a state common law theory of respondeat superior (Rice v. Panchal, 875 F. Supp. 471 (N.D. Ill. 1994)) (see, “Recent Developments in Health Laws,” Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, 23 (1995): at 208). On September 12, 1995, the Seventh Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals reversed this decision and ordered that the case be tried in state court (Rice v. Panchal, 65 F.3d 637 (7th Cir. 1995)). The court held that the case had been improperly removed to federal court. The court of appeals stated that the federal court did not have jurisdiction because the plaintiff's claim did not fall within ERISA's provisions.

In this case, plaintiff David Rice brought a medical malpractice suit against two doctors who provided treatment to him in accordance with his ERISA insurance plan.