California Brain Institute, Inc. v. United HealthCare Services, Inc.

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United States District Court Central District of California

11 CALIFORNIA BRAIN INSTITUTE, Case № 2:23-cv-06071-ODW (RAOx)

Plaintiff,

ORDER GRANTING MOTION TO

v.

DISMISS [18]

14 UNITED HEALTHCARE SERVICES, INC. et al.,

Defendants. 16 I. INTRODUCTION Plaintiff California Brain Institute (“CBI”) brings this action against Defendant 19 United Healthcare Services, Inc. to obtain compensation CBI claims United 20 improperly retained. (First Am. Compl. (“FAC”) ¶¶ 5–6, ECF No. 13.) CBI asserts 21 three common law causes of action “in its own individual capacity,” and one cause of 22 action for recovery of benefits under the Employee Retirement Income Securities Act 23 of 1974 (“ERISA”), as its patient’s assignee. (Id. ¶¶ 5–7.) United moves to dismiss 24 CBI’s common law causes of action as preempted and insufficiently pleaded. (Mot. 25 (“Motion” or “Mot.”) 1–2, ECF No. 18.) The Court finds CBI’s common law causes 26 of action as pleaded are preempted by ERISA and therefore GRANTS the Motion.1

28 1 Having carefully considered the…