Saklad
Standard Insurance v. Saklad
Opinion
Lead Opinion
Fernandez, J.
Jerome Saklad appeals the district court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of Standard Insurance Company on its claim that it could employ setoff against benefits owed to Saklad from the Master Plating, Inc. (MP) disability plan, and thus avoid distributing those benefits to him. We reverse and remand.
BACKGROUND
The facts before the district court do not place Saklad in a very flattering light. He had been employed by Industrial Electronic Engineers (IEE),. and in late 1979 he filed a claim under its disability plan in which he represented that he was totally disabled due to Legionnaire’s Disease and accompanying heart problems. Standard provided the insurance to IEE’s disability plan, which was a welfare plan under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act. See 29 U.S.C. § 1002 (1). By December of 1984, Standard had settled Saklad’s past and future disability claims for which Saklad received a total of $197,234.
In the meantime, Saklad was actually employed by another company, MP. In fact, he held a high-level job with that company. He was its vice president, and he had worked for the company since January of 1980. It, too, had an ERISA disability plan, and Standard…