Ioane John Opeta v. Northwest Airlines Pension Plan for Contract Employees

How courts have described this case

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

• setting forth standard of review for a district court’s decision to admit or exclude evidence that was not before the plan administrator
• on de novo review, the court must find “exceptional circumstances” to admit evidence outside the administrative record, like complex medical issues
• “At trial, the Court generally considers only ‘the evidence that was before the plan administrator ... at the time of the determination.’ ” (alteration in original
• “We have held that the default standard of review in ERISA cases is de novo and that discretion exists only if it is ‘unambiguously retained.’ ”
• additional discovery not necessary to conduct de novo review in 2 ERISA case where such evidence would not clarify the administrative record and no ambiguity regarding medical examiner’s conclusion existed
• trial court may admit extrinsic evidence beyond the administrative 22 record in certain instances, including when there is additional evidence that the claimant 23 could not have presented in the administrative process

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).