Stoyko

MEMORANDUM ***

Richard Stoyko appeals the district court’s grant of summary judgment for the defendants in his Employee Retirement Income Security Act (“ERISA”) action alleging that he was wrongfully denied long-term disability (“LTD”) benefits. As the parties are familiar with the facts, we recount them here only as necessary to explain our decision.

We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 . We review de novo the district court’s grant of summary judgment. Taft v. Equitable Life Assurance Soc’y, 9 F.3d 1469 , 1471 (9th Cir.1993). We review the denial of Stoyko’s LTD benefit request for an abuse of discretion because the plan administrator was given discretionary authority to determine benefit eligibility. See Winters v. Costco Wholesale Corp., 49 F.3d 550, 552 (9th Cir.1995). We “impose a more stringent version of the abuse of discretion standard” to the administrator’s denial in this case because the administrator is also Stoyko’s employer, which cre *536 ates an apparent conflict of interest. See id. We reverse and remand.

To the extent that the administrator denied Stoyko’s application for LTD benefits on the basis of Dr. Sassoon’s physician review, its decision is…