Mandell Menkes lawyers secured grants of summary judgment in favor of one of the nation’s leading providers of insurance in two unrelated cases in the Northern District of Illinois.

In the first matter, Brown v. Metropolitan Life Ins. Co., 463 F. Supp. 2d 847 (N.D. Ill. 2006), the court affirmed the plan administrator’s determination that the plaintiff did not qualify for long term disability where plaintiff failed to submit proof of continuing disability. The court stressed the importance of the plan administrator’s reliance on the job description provided by plaintiff’s employer, which was reviewed by the independent physician consultant and incorporated into his conclusions regarding plaintiff’s condition.

Similarly, in the second case, Dreyer v. Metropolitan Life Ins. Co., 459 F. Supp. 2d 675 (N.D. Ill. 2006), the court concluded that the plan administrator’s determination that plaintiff did not qualify for short term disability benefits was not arbitrary and capricious where the independent medical expert concluded there was insufficient evidence of global impairment of functioning that would prevent the employee from performing the duties of her own occupation, even though the expert had not personally examined the plaintiff.

Mandell Menkes associate Natalie Harris drafted the successful motions with assistance from partner Steve Mandell.