Matthew Rippentrop v. E.H. Oftedal & Sons, Incorpora

MEMORANDUM

Appellant Matthew Q. Rippentrop (Rip-pentrop) challenges the district court’s summary judgment in favor of Appellees E.H. Oftedal & Sons, Inc. Employee Stock Ownership Plan (Plan) and E.H. Oftedal & Sons, Inc. (Oftedal). The district court rejected Rippentrop’s challenge to Oftedal’s denial of his benefits claim pursuant to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), 29 U.S.C. § 1001 , et seq.

Because the Plan conferred discretionary authority upon Oftedal to determine eligibility for benefits, Oftedal’s decision to deny benefits is reviewed for an abuse of discretion. See Nolan v. Heald Coll., 551 F.3d 1148, 1153 (9th Cir.2009). Contrary to Rippentrop’s assertion, Oftedal’s structural conflict of interest does not compel application of a de novo review standard. See Abatie v. Alta Health & Life Ins. Co., 458 F.3d 955, 965 (9th Cir.2006) (en banc) (“Abuse of discretion review applies to a discretion-granting plan even if the administrator has a conflict of interest ”) (emphasis added) (footnote reference omitted). Rather, Oftedal’s conflict of interest is weighed as a factor in the abuse of discretion analysis. See id. at 966-69 . In this case, the…