Transamerica Occidental Life Insurance Company, a Corporation, Plaintiff v. Linda Ann Digregorio

Transamerica Occidental Life Insurance Company (Transamerica) brought suit in federal court pursuant to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), 29 U.S.C. §§ 1001-1461 , for a declaration that its policy did not provide double indemnity to a particular beneficiary. The district court dismissed on the ground that it lacked subject matter jurisdiction or, alternatively, that it had discretion to defer to pending state court litigation. Transamerica appeals. We hold that there was federal jurisdiction but affirm on the alternative ground.

I.

FACTS

An employee of the Bank of America died of heat stroke. The bank’s employee welfare plan included a life insurance policy worth some $50,000, with double indemnity in the event of death by “external, violent, and accidental means.” Transamerica, the insurer, paid the decedent’s estate single coverage, denying that the double indemnity clause applied to heat stroke. Defendant, the decedent’s daughter and successor to the estate, threatened to sue; Transamerica responded by seeking a declaratory judgment in federal district court. About one month later, defendant filed suit in state court. Her complaint raised exclusively state…