Bayona

We hold today that a plan fiduciary may file an interpleader action under ERISA in an appropriate case.

Appellant Emelita Castro appeals the district court’s grant of appellee Aetna Life Insurance Company’s motion for in-terpleader discharge, and the district court’s dismissal of her counterclaims against Aetna, Good Samaritan Hospital, and the Good Samaritan Bene-Flex Plan. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 , and we affirm the district court.

I.

Evangeline Castro was a nurse employed by Good Samaritan Hospital. Aet-na Life Insurance Company issued a group insurance policy to Good Samaritan to fund insurance benefits offered by the hospital to its employees as part of its Bene-Flex Plan, which is governed by ERISA.

While employed by Good Samaritan, Evangeline enrolled for coverage under the plan’s life insurance program. According to Evangeline’s beneficiary designation, her sister, appellant Emelita Castro, was to receive 85% of the insurance proceeds in trust for Evangeline’s children; Evangeline’s husband of sixteen months, Rey Bayona, was to receive 15% of the proceeds.

After Evangeline’s death in 1994, however, Bayona informed Aetna that he wished to claim a…