Jalal SARRAF, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. STANDARD INSURANCE COMPANY, Defendant-Appellee

ORDER

Appellee’s request for publication, Ninth Cir. R. 36-4, is granted and the memorandum filed October 31, 1996, is redesignated as an authored opinion by Judge Tashima.

OPINION

I

Plaintiff Jalal Sarraf (“Sarraf’) initiated this action to recover long-term disability benefits under a group insurance policy (“LTD policy” or “LTD plan”) issued by defendant Standard Insurance Company (“Standard”) to the Orange County Employees Association (“OCEA”). The district court held that the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (“ERISA”), 29 U.S.C. § 1001 , et seq., governed the LTD policy at issue, and that Sarrafs failure to exhaust administrative remedies under the ERISA plan bars this action.

We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 , and we review de novo the district court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of Standard. Qualls v. Blue Cross of Calif., Inc., 22 F.3d 839 , 842 (9th Cir.1994). We affirm.

II

We turn' first to Sarrafs contention that ERISA does not govern the LTD policy in issue. ERISA applies to “any employee benefit plan if it is established or maintained by any employee organization_” 29 U.S.C. § 1003 (a)(2).

OCEA is clearly an “employee…