Boyd v. Coventry Health Care Inc.

828 F. Supp. 2d 809, 52 Employee Benefits Cas. (BNA) 2905, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 135000, 2011 WL 5854627
CourtDistrict Court, D. Maryland
DecidedNovember 18, 2011
DocketCivil Action No. 8:09-cv-02661-AW, 09-2850-AW, 09-3063-AW, 09-3074-AW, 10-0462-AW
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 828 F. Supp. 2d 809 (Boyd v. Coventry Health Care Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Maryland primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Boyd v. Coventry Health Care Inc., 828 F. Supp. 2d 809, 52 Employee Benefits Cas. (BNA) 2905, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 135000, 2011 WL 5854627 (D. Md. 2011).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION

ALEXANDER WILLIAMS, JR., District Judge.

Pending before the Court is Defendants’ Motion for Reconsideration of the Court’s March 31, 2011 Opinion and Order, 2011 WL 1258524 (“Motion for Reconsideration”). The parties have fully briefed the issues and the Court deems no hearing necessary. For the reasons stated herein, the Court GRANTS IN PART and DENIES IN PART Defendants’ Motion for Reconsideration.

I. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

Except where otherwise indicated, the Court takes the following facts from Plaintiffs’ Amended Complaint and construes them favorably to Plaintiffs. Defendant Coventry Health Care Inc. (“Coventry”) is a national managed health care company based in Bethesda, Maryland. Coventry operates health plans, insurance companies, network rental/managed care services companies, and workers’ compensation services companies. In addition to Coventry, Plaintiffs name several Coventry employees as Defendants. Plaintiffs categorize these Defendants as “Director Defendants,” “Officer Defendants,” and “Committee Defendants.”1

Plaintiffs participated in an ERISA defined contribution plan (“the Plan”) that Coventry sponsored. The Plan is a voluntary contribution plan whereby participants make contributions to the Plan and direct the Plan to purchase investments with those contributions from investment [813]*813options that participants pre-select. From February 9, 2007 through October 22, 2008 (the “Class Period”), the Plan acquired and held shares of Coventry common stock. Coventry common stock was offered as one of the retirement saving options in the participant-contribution component of the Plan. In other words, Plan participants could direct their accounts to be invested in Coventry Stock and twenty-three mutual funds that the Plan offered as investment options. The Plan authorizes Coventry to make employer matching contributions up to a certain level based on a participant’s contributions and compensation. Plaintiffs assert that Coventry made all of its matching contributions in Coventry common stock. Plaintiffs also state that the Plan documents did not obligate Coventry to invest solely in Coventry stock.

Plaintiffs’ allegations revolve around Coventry’s Medicare Advantage Private Fee for Service product (“PFFS”). PFFS is a type of Medicare plan that private companies offer that allows members to choose their own healthcare provider. Coventry launched PFFS in forty-three states on January 1, 2007. Plaintiffs maintain that, at the start of the Class Period, Coventry’s future growth prospects depended highly on PFFS. Nevertheless, Plaintiffs contend that Coventry launched PFFS without establishing a control system by which it could monitor, process, account for, and pay claims emanating from insureds’ visits to non-network service providers. According to Plaintiffs, this omission caused a claims-processing lag that adversely affected Coventry’s profitability. Nonetheless, in Plaintiffs’ estimation, Coventry employed underpricing strategies to create a false appearance that PFFS was as profitable as Coventry touted it to be. Additionally, Plaintiffs allege that Defendants and other Coventry insiders sold hundreds of thousands of shares of personally held Coventry stock for gross proceeds in excess of $14 million even as certain Defendants issued misleading statements about Coventry’s financial health. Plaintiffs further allege that Defendants issued these inaccurate statements through a variety of outlets, including a SEC filing and a press release.

Based on these and other allegations, Plaintiffs filed a class-action complaint against Defendants on October 13, 2009. Doc. 1. In their Amended Complaint, filed on June 28, 2010, Plaintiffs assert four claims. Doc. 17. Count I asserts a claim for failing to prudently and loyally manage the Plan and assets of the Plan. In Count II, Plaintiffs assert a claim for failing to monitor fiduciaries. For its part, Count III asserts a claim for failing to avoid conflicts of interest. Finally, Count IV asserts a claim for co-fiduciary liability. On August 12, 2010, Defendants filed a Motion to Dismiss Plaintiffs’ Amended Complaint (“Motion to Dismiss”). Doc. 20.

The Court ruled on Defendants’ Motion to Dismiss on March 31, 2011 (“March 31 Opinion”). Doc. 29. In the March 31 Opinion, the Court granted in part and denied in part Defendants’ Motion to Dismiss. Whereas the Court denied the Motion to Dismiss as to Counts I, III, and IV of the Amended Complaint, the Court granted it as to Count II. On April 14, 2011, Defendants filed the instant Motion for Reconsideration. Doc. 33. Defendants use their Motion for Reconsideration largely to rehash arguments that the Court rejected in its March 31 Opinion.

II. STANDARD OF REVIEW

In pertinent part, Rule 54(b) provides that Courts may revise interlocutory orders “at any time before the entry of a judgment.” Fed.R.Civ.P. 54(b); see also Moses H. Cone Mem. Hosp. v. Mercury [814]*814Const. Corp., 460 U.S. 1, 12, 103 S.Ct. 927, 74 L.Ed.2d 765 (1983) (footnote omitted) (noting that “every order short of a final decree is subject to reopening at the discretion of the district judge”). In view of this discretion, “[mjotions for reconsideration of interlocutory orders are not subject to the strict standards applicable to motions for reconsideration of a final judgment.” Am. Canoe Ass’n v. Murphy Farms, Inc., 326 F.3d 505, 514-15 (4th Cir.2003) (citation omitted). Nevertheless, “doctrines such as law of the case ... have evolved as a means of guiding” district courts’ discretion to reconsider interlocutory orders. Id. at 515. (citing Sejman v. Warner-Lambert Co., Inc., 845 F.2d 66, 69 (4th Cir.1988)). The law of the case doctrine dictates that courts must follow the law that a prior decision establishes unless “ ‘(1) a subsequent trial produces substantially different evidence, (2) controlling authority has since made a contrary decision of law applicable to the issue, or (3) the prior decision was clearly erroneous and would work manifest injustice.’ ” See Sejman, 845 F.2d at 69 (quoting EEOC v. Int’l Longshoremen’s Assoc., 623 F.2d 1054, 1058 (5th Cir.1980)). Albeit omnipresent, the law of the case doctrine cannot positively prohibit a district court from reconsidering an interlocutory order in light of federal courts’ “ultimate responsibility ... to reach the correct judgment under law.” Murphy Farms, 326 F.3d at 515. Yet “concerns of finality and judicial economy” may temper this responsibility. Id. Therefore, relief is rarely ever appropriate “[w]hen the motion raises no new arguments, but merely requests the district court to reconsider a legal issue or to change its mind.” Pritchard v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., 3 Fed.Appx. 52, 53 (4th Cir.2001) (citation and internal quotation marks omitted).

III. LEGAL ANALYSIS

A. Reconsideration of the Court’s March 31 Opinion

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828 F. Supp. 2d 809, 52 Employee Benefits Cas. (BNA) 2905, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 135000, 2011 WL 5854627, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/boyd-v-coventry-health-care-inc-mdd-2011.