ERISA DOESN'T PREEMPT MALPRACTICE CLAIMS, U.S. APPEALS COURT SAYS.The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has joined three other circuits in ruling that the federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act The Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), 29 U.S.C.A. § 1001 et seq. (1974), is a federal law that sets minimum standards for most voluntarily established Pension and health plans in private industry to provide protection for individuals enrolled in these plans. doesn't preempt pre·empt or pre-empt v. pre·empt·ed, pre·empt·ing, pre·empts v.tr. 1. To appropriate, seize, or take for oneself before others. See Synonyms at appropriate. 2. a. medical malpractice claims under state law against employers' benefit plans. "Medical malpractice is one traditional field of state regulation that several circuits have concluded Congress did not intend to preempt," Judge Thomas G. Nelson wrote for the three-judge panel in Bui v. AT&T et al. (01-35509). "We join the Third, Fifth and Tenth Circuits in holding that ERISA's preemption preemption U.S. policy that allowed the first settlers, or squatters, on public land to buy the land they had improved. Since improved land, coveted by speculators, was often priced too high for squatters to buy at auction, temporary preemptive laws allowed them to acquire clause...does not preempt actions involving allegations of negligence in the provision of medical care, even if the patient procures the care through an ERISA See Employee Retirement Income Security Act. ERISA See Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). plan." Hung M. Duong was employed in Saudi Arabia by American Telephone & Telegraph and an offshoot, Lucent Technologies, when he fell seriously ill. He consulted with a doctor employed by the companies as well as with International SOS Assistance, Inc., which his employers had retained to provide emergency medical advice and evacuation services. Both advised evacuation posed greater risk than being treated in Saudi Arabia, so Duong was treated in Erfan Hospital in Jeddah. He died after two unsuccessful operations. His widow, Nga Bui, sued AT&T, Lucent and SOS SOS, code letters of the international distress signal. The signal is expressed in International Morse code as … — — — … (three dots, three dashes, three dots). for negligence in federal court in Oregon, where a judge granted the companies summary judgment on grounds of ERISA preemption. Bui appealed and prevailed in the Ninth Circuit on her medical malpractice claims. ERISA's preemption clause says it overrides "any and all State laws insofar in·so·far adv. To such an extent. Adv. 1. insofar - to the degree or extent that; "insofar as it can be ascertained, the horse lung is comparable to that of man"; "so far as it is reasonably practical he should practice as they may now or hereafter relate to any employee benefit plan," the appellate panel noted. But its application "has evolved from a plain language interpretation, in which ERIA ERIA Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia would have preempted nearly everything, to a more pragmatic interpretation, in which courts seek to preserve the goals of Congress when it passed ERISA, while maintaining state control in traditional fields of state regulation," Judge Nelson wrote. "ERISA does not preempt claims of medical malpractice against medical service providers for decisions made in the course of treatment or, in this case, evaluation. That is true even if those medical service providers also serve, at other times, as administrators." |
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