Gables Insurance Recovery v. United Healthcare Insurance

39 F. Supp. 3d 1377, 2013 WL 9576688, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 188562
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. Florida
DecidedAugust 8, 2013
DocketCase No. 13-21157-CIV
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 39 F. Supp. 3d 1377 (Gables Insurance Recovery v. United Healthcare Insurance) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Gables Insurance Recovery v. United Healthcare Insurance, 39 F. Supp. 3d 1377, 2013 WL 9576688, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 188562 (S.D. Fla. 2013).

Opinion

ORDER

CECILIA M. ALTONAGA, District Judge.

THIS CAUSE is before the Court upon several Notices of Filing Supplemental Authority (collectively, the “Notices”) [ECF Nos. 18, 20, 26, 27], filed by Plaintiff, Gables Insurance Recovery (“GIR”). The Notices provide copies of four orders1 granting motions to remand in similar cases by other judges in this District.2 The Court ordered Defendant, United Healthcare Insurance Company (“United”) to file a memorandum explaining why the undersigned should not adopt the reasoning presented in the Judge King Remand Order3 [1382]*1382and similarly remand this action. (See Order dated May 23, 2013 (“May 23 Order”) [ECF No. 19]). United filed a Memorandum of Law in Response to Plaintiffs Notice[s] ... (“Response”) [ECF No. 21] on June 5, 2013. GIR filed an Amended Response in Opposition ... (“Reply”) [ECF No. 25] on June 14, 2013. The Court has carefully considered the written submissions, supplemental authority and applicable law.

I. BACKGROUND

This case concerns a patient, a health care provider, a collection agency, and a health care plan. United, a Florida corporation, issued a health insurance policy to Marlene Ortiz (“Ortiz”), the plan participant (“Participant”), obligating United to pay third-party medical service providers for medical and health care services furnished to Ortiz. (See Compl. ¶¶ 13-16 [ECF No. 1-2]). GIR, a collection agency, alleges Acupuncture & Health Promotion, Inc. (“AHP”), a medical provider, rendered services to Ortiz from August 15, 2012 to September 19, 2012 with appropriate authorization from United, but AHP never received payment. (See id. ¶¶ 18, 20, 23). GIR is a Florida entity engaged in the business of collecting accounts receivables, and “it has received an assignment of all available causes of action ... from the medical provider, [AHP], to proceed against the insurer[, United.]” (Id. ¶ 3). GIR’s Complaint, originally filed in state court, alleges GIR is entitled to recover payment for medical services provided by AHP to a participant in an employee benefit plan (“the Plan”) governed by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (“ERISA”),4 29 U.S.C. section 1001 et seq. (See generally Compl.).

GIR asserts six state-law causes of action against United: common law breach of contract (Count I), breach of an oral contract (Count II), breach of implied contract (Count III), quantum meruit (Count IV), open account (Count V), and account stated (Count VI). (See id. 4-10). The Complaint specifically disavows any relief under section 502(a) of ERISA, 29 U.S.C. section 1132(a)(1)(B) (“Section 502(a)”), or any claims that are not state law claims. (See id. ¶¶ 5-6). GIR seeks damages not exceeding $15,000.00, exclusive of costs and fees. (See id. ¶ 8).

On April 2, 2013, United timely removed this action (“Notice of Removal”) [ECF No. 1], United insists removal is proper because GIR’s state law claims are preempted by Section 502(a). (See id. ¶ 6). GIR seeks remand, relying principally on the Remand Orders which granted remand in cases nearly identical to this action. (See generally Notices; Remand Orders).

II. LEGAL STANDARD

Under 28 U.S.C. section 1447(c), a case removed from state court must be remanded if it appears that it was removed improvidently. “A suit may be removed to federal court under 28 U.S.C. [section] 1441(a) only if it could have been brought there originally.” Sullivan v. First Affiliated Sec., Inc., 813 F.2d 1368, 1371 (9th Cir.1987) (citing Franchise Tax Bd. v. Constr. Laborers Vacation Trust, 463 U.S. 1, 10, 103 S.Ct. 2841, 77 L.Ed.2d 420 (1983)). The burden of establishing federal jurisdiction falls on the party attempting to invoke the jurisdiction of the federal [1383]*1383court. See McNutt v. Gen. Motors Acceptance Corp. of Indiana., 298 U.S. 178, 189, 56 S.Ct. 780, 80 L.Ed. 1135 (1936). Moreover, courts should strictly construe the requirements of removal jurisdiction and remand all cases in which such jurisdiction is doubtful. See Shamrock Oil & Gas Corp. v. Sheets, 313 U.S. 100, 108-09, 61 S.Ct. 868, 85 L.Ed. 1214 (1941) (citations omitted). Where the plaintiff and defendant disagree on the issue of jurisdiction, uncertainties must be resolved in favor of remand. See Burns v. Windsor Ins. Co., 31 F.3d 1092, 1095 (11th Cir.1994) (citations omitted).

“The presence or absence of federal-question jurisdiction is governed by the ‘well-pleaded complaint rule/ which provides that federal jurisdiction exists only when a federal question is presented on the face of the plaintiffs properly pleaded complaint.” Caterpillar, Inc. v. Williams, 482 U.S. 386, 392, 107 S.Ct. 2425, 96 L.Ed.2d 318 (1987) (citation omitted). Nevertheless, there exists an “independent corollary” to the well-pleaded complaint rule known as “complete preemption,” which creates federal-question jurisdiction when the “pre-emptive force of a statute is so ‘extraordinary’ that it ‘converts an ordinary state common-law complaint into one stating a federal claim for purposes of the well-pleaded complaint rule.’ ” Id. at 393, 107 S.Ct. 2425 (quoting Metro. Life Ins. Co. v. Taylor, 481 U.S. 58, 65, 107 S.Ct. 1542, 95 L.Ed.2d 55 (1987)); see also Butero v. Royal Maccabees Life Ins., Co., 174 F.3d 1207, 1211-12 (11th Cir.1999). To determine jurisdiction, the Court must look at the plaintiffs complaint at the time of removal. See Ehlen Floor Covering, Inc. v. Lamb, 660 F.3d 1283, 1287 (11th Cir.2011).

III. ANALYSIS

State law claims can be subject to the doctrine of complete preemption under ERISA. Aetna Health Inc. v. Davila, 542 U.S. 200, 209, 124 S.Ct. 2488, 159 L.Ed.2d 312 (2004). “[A]ny state-law cause of action that duplicates, supplements or supplants the ERISA civil enforcement remedy conflicts with the clear congressional intent to make the ERISA remedy exclusive and is therefore preempted.” Id. (citations omitted).

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39 F. Supp. 3d 1377, 2013 WL 9576688, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 188562, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gables-insurance-recovery-v-united-healthcare-insurance-flsd-2013.