David Rice v. Kanu Panchal, M.D., Rodrigo Sotillo, M.D., Rodrigo Sotillo, P.C., a Corporation

How courts have described this case

Verbatim parenthetical descriptions written by other courts when citing this decision. Ranked by citation-network relevance.

• holding that ERISA does not preempt plaintiff's claim premised solely on state law where plaintiff did not invoke the ERISA plan
• concluding that medical malpractice claims based on state law do not require construction of a benefit plan as support for its conclusion that a state common law claim of respon-deat superior for alleged medical malpractice was not completely preempted by ERISA
• noting that if issue is “merely” conflict analysis, it serves only as a defense, and the complaint is not recharacterized as federal
• noting that ERISA “displaces state claims that it does not necessarily replace with federal claims” (citation omitted)
• explaining that a federal question “that merely serves as a defense to a state law action . . . does not confer federal question jurisdiction,” and so “the defendant cannot cause a transfer to federal court simply by asserting a federal question in his responsive pleading”
• where state law creates a quality standard by which performance of the contract is evaluated then that state law is completely preempted.

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).