... proven by revealing redacted insurance contract language.
In Williams v. Fedex Corp. Serv's, ___ F.3d ___, No. 16-4032, 2017 WL 727134 (10th Cir. February 24, 2017), Aetna, the ERISA administrator of FedEx's health plan, was not only immune from liability but actually had a fiduciary duty under the health plan contract to report whenever an employee made a claim for benefits for substance abuse:
FedEx's ADFWP [Alcohol/Drug Free Workplace Policy] provides, “[t]he disability vendor [Aetna] will notify [FedEx] when an employee seeks benefits for substance abuse.”9 “Substance abuse” in the policy includes the use of prescription drugs, and Mr. Williams indisputably experienced withdrawal of prescribed Suboxone. So, when Aetna concluded that Mr. Williams suffered from a Chemical Dependency in the form of Suboxone withdrawal, it had a duty under the ADFWP to report his condition to FedEx. Compliance with FedEx's policy cannot constitute a breach of fiduciary duty.
9 The version of the ADFWP in the record does not include the language quoted in the sentence preceding this footnote. It appears we may have a redacted copy of the policy. But in its motion for summary judgment and in its brief on appeal, Aetna quoted the language above, and Mr. Williams has not argued that the quotes are inaccurate.
Williams v. Fedex Corp. Serv's, ___ F.3d ___, No. 16-4032, 2017 WL 727134 (10th Cir. February 24, 2017) (page numbers not available from Westlaw at this time). Parenthetically, the employee was one Williams. Mr. Williams's use of Suboxone was prescribed by a physician as a substitute to wean Mr. Williams off of his use of OxyContin, the addictive pain-killer. These facts had no effect in Utah on the District Judge's grant of Aetna's summary judgment motion, and they had no effect in the later appeal of that judgment to the Tenth Circuit.
The appellate panel's footnote 9 is potentially even more interesting to lawyers. This footnote recites the Tenth Circuit panel's approving use of redacted evidence which was revealed by one of the parties in order to obtain a judgment. It is particularly of interest considering that this crucial element of the decisions in two courts, the trial court and the appellate court, was "redacted" at all.
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