Banks v. Travelers Insurance

60 F.R.D. 158, 17 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 658, 1973 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13429
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Pennsylvania
DecidedMay 31, 1973
DocketCiv. A. No. 72-1153
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 60 F.R.D. 158 (Banks v. Travelers Insurance) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Banks v. Travelers Insurance, 60 F.R.D. 158, 17 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 658, 1973 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13429 (E.D. Pa. 1973).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

HUYETT, District Judge.

In this action plaintiffs seek compensatory damages for defendant's breach of a group disability insurance contract and compensatory and punitive damages for fraudulent misrepresentations made by defendant’s agents to induce the plaintiffs to purchase the insurance. The complaint is divided into two counts, and plaintiffs seek to represent classes of persons similarly situated in each count. In Count I, plaintiffs allege that the insurance contract is ambiguous and that defendant has applied inconsistent and varying standards for determining whether insured persons qualify for benefits under the contract. Further, plaintiffs claim that if the defendant, Travelers, applied proper and consistent standards, then all persons who are beneficiaries of the insurance policy and who have been denied benefits would receive benefits. The class which plaintiffs seek to represent consists of:

All persons who are or were employees of Honeywell, Inc. and who, as such, are or were beneficiaries of a group policy of insurance, issued by defendant as Group Policy No. GA765651, and who were denied by defendant all or any portion of the “Total Disability” specified in the provisions of Paragraph I of the Certificate of Insurance under Group Policy No. GA765651.
Complaint, ¶[ 9(b) (i).

For relief in Count I, plaintiffs seek “their actual damages, together with interest, costs, attorneys’ fees and such other relief as the Court deems necessary, just and proper.”

In Count II, plaintiffs allege that the defendant represented that:

under the provisions of the Travelers’ Group Disability Policy, as described in Paragraph I of the Certificate of Insurance, “total disability” benefits would be paid to all persons who, after the Qualifying Disability Period referred to in Paragraph I of the Certificate of Insurance, were unable to engage in any and every duty pertaining to the occupation or employment for wage or profit for which the said Count II Plaintiffs were or be[161]*161came reasonably qualified to perform through or as a result of their training, education or experience at their jobs at Honeywell, Inc., Fort Washington Industrial Division.
Complaint, ¶ 20(a).

The plaintiffs further allege in Count II that the defendant intentionally made these representations, the representations were false, the representations were made to induce the plaintiffs to purchase the insurance, and the plaintiffs relied on the representations when they purchased the insurance.

The plaintiffs, in Count II, seek to represent a class consisting of all persons:

who are or were employed by Honeywell, Inc. on an hourly basis, at the Industrial Division, Fort Washington, Pennsylvania, and who, as such, are or were beneficiaries of the Group Policy No. GA765651, and who were denied by defendant all or any portion of the “Total Disability” benefits specified in Paragraph I of the Certificate of Insurance issued pursuant to such policy under circumstances referred to in the Second Count hereof.
Complaint, ¶ 9(b) (i).

The language of the insurance certificate which defines total disability reads as follows:

The term “total disability” as used herein means the complete inability of an employee to engage in any and every duty pertaining to any occupation or employment for wage or profit for which the Employee is or becomes reasonably qualified by training, education, or experience except that during the Qualifying Disability Period plus the first twenty-four months of absence from work due to disability thereafter, the Employee shall be deemed totally disabled while he is unable to perform any and every duty pertaining to his occupation and is not engaged in any occupation or employment for wage and profit.
Complaint, Exhibit “A”, ff 1.

Before us at this time are plaintiff’s motion for a determination that the above-entitled action is maintainable as a class action, defendant’s motion for summary judgment, defendant’s motion for severance, plaintiffs’ motion to compel complete answers to interrogatories, plaintiffs’ motion for inspection of documents, and plaintiffs’ motion for production of witnesses for depositions.

In resolving these motions we shall first consider defendant’s motion for summary judgment. To the extent that it is granted, it will be unnecessary to resolve other motions. See Local Union No. 67 v. Duquesne Brewing Co., 354 F. Supp. 1033,1035 (W.D.Pa.1973).

Plaintiffs base jurisdiction solely on diversity of citizenship, 28 U.S.C. § 1332(a) (1970). Defendant believes, however, that none of the claims of the plaintiffs exceed the jurisdictional amount, $10,000.

In the complaint, plaintiff Banks claims losses of $46,616; plaintiff McRoberts claims $13,167; plaintiff Denneny claims $20,460; and plaintiff Cole claims $28,420. Complaint, ¶ 16. These sums represent the total sum each plaintiff would receive if he collects benefits up to age 65.

The standard for determining the amount in controversy for jurisdictional purposes in a suit regarding payment of benefits under a disability insurance contract is the amount owing at the time of the filing of the suit. Beaman v. Pacific Mutual Life Insurance Co., 369 F.2d 653 (4th Cir. 1966); Keck v. Fidelity and Casualty Co., 359 F.2d 840 (7th Cir. 1966).

Applying this standard no plaintiff has as of the time this action was filed suffered ten thousand dollars damages. Plaintiffs’ only response to this argument is that they allege punitive damages. That is true, but only in Count II. Therefore, Count I must be dismissed unless the plaintiffs are per[162]*162mitted to aggregate their claims or jurisdiction is retained under the doctrine of ancillary jurisdiction.

The law is settled that when several plaintiffs having separate and distinct demands join in one suit:

it is essential that the demand of each be of the requisite jurisdictional amount; but when several plaintiffs unite to enforce a single title or right in which they have a common and undivided interest, it is enough if their interests collectively equal the jurisdictional amount.

Pinel v. Pinel, 240 U.S. 594, 596, 36 S. Ct. 416, 417, 60 L.Ed. 817 (1916). Clearly these plaintiffs do not have a “common and undivided interest” but rather separate interests and rights derived from their separate subscriptions to the insurance policy. Therefore, these plaintiffs cannot aggregate their Count I damages to attain the jurisdictional amount.

The class action allegations do not permit the plaintiffs to aggregate their claims to reach the jurisdictional amount. Aggregation is permitted only in “true” class actions. Snyder v. Harris, 394 U.S. 332, 89 S.Ct. 1053, 22 L.Ed.2d 319 (1969).

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Bluebook (online)
60 F.R.D. 158, 17 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 658, 1973 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13429, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/banks-v-travelers-insurance-paed-1973.