Richard M. Sanchez v. Monumental Life Insurance Company

ORDER

The Opinion filed September 11, 1996, slip op. 11747, and appearing at 95 F.3d 856 (9th Cir.1996), is amended as follows:

With this amendment, the panel has voted, unanimously to deny the petition for rehearing and to reject the suggestion for rehearing en banc.

The full court has been advised of the suggestion for rehearing en banc and no active judge has requested a vote on whether to rehear the matter en banc. Fed.RApp.P. 35.

The petition for rehearing is DENIED and the suggestion for rehearing en banc is REJECTED.

OPINION

We must decide the proper test to apply to establish subject matter jurisdiction over a removed diversity case in which the plaintiffs state court complaint fails to specify whether the amount in controversy exceeds $50,000.

I

In March 1989, appellant Richard Sanchez, a welder, filed a claim for “permanent total disability” benefits from Monumental General Insurance Co., the insurance carrier for Sanchez’s group policy. The claim was based on an injury which Sanchez allegedly suffered in January 1988. With his claim Sanchez submitted a physician’s statement which indicated that any total disability which Sanchez may have suffered as a result of…