Richard Kludka v. Qwest Disability Plan

MEMORANDUM

Richard Kludka appeals the district court’s grant of summary judgment, on remand from this court, Kludka v. Qwest Disability Plan, 454 Fed.Appx. 611 (9th Cir.2011) (unpublished), in his Employee Retirement Income Security Act (“ERISA”) action challenging Qwest Disability Services’ (“QDS”) termination of his long-term disability benefits under the Qwest Disability Plan (“the Plan”). We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 . We affirm.

We review de novo the district court’s grant of a motion for summary judgment and the “district court’s choice and application of the standard of review to decisions by fiduciaries in ERISA cases.” Nolan v. Heald Coll., 551 F.3d 1148, 1153 (9th Cir. 2009) (internal quotation marks and citation omitted). We review the district court’s decision to exclude extrinsic evidence for abuse of discretion. Muniz v. Amec Constr. Mgmt., Inc., 623 F.3d 1290, 1294 (9th Cir.2010).

Here, the district court did not err in concluding that QDS, the third-party administrator of the Plan, did not abuse its discretion in terminating Kludka’s long-term disability benefits. Although QDS committed two procedural errors — failing to specify what documents…