Hunt Ex Rel. Hunt v. Sherman

345 N.W.2d 750, 5 Employee Benefits Cas. (BNA) 1741, 1984 Minn. LEXIS 1283
CourtSupreme Court of Minnesota
DecidedMarch 16, 1984
DocketCO-83-370
StatusPublished
Cited by21 cases

This text of 345 N.W.2d 750 (Hunt Ex Rel. Hunt v. Sherman) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Minnesota primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hunt Ex Rel. Hunt v. Sherman, 345 N.W.2d 750, 5 Employee Benefits Cas. (BNA) 1741, 1984 Minn. LEXIS 1283 (Mich. 1984).

Opinions

PETERSON, Justice.

On July 23, 1981, plaintiff Jeffrey Hunt seriously injured his right hand when it was caught in the cutting blade of a power lawnmower operated by defendant William Mohr. Jeffrey’s father, plaintiff Gary Hunt, brought suit in Ramsey County District Court seeking damages for personal injuries to his son resulting from negligence by an adolescent lawnmower operator and negligent entrustment by the minor’s parents. The suit was settled between the parties for payment of the policy limits of $100,000. The parties, in their settlement, agreed that the award in that amount did not fully compensate Jeffrey for his injuries. The district court judge approved the settlement and ordered plaintiffs to pay intervenor/respondent, Sheet Metal Workers Local 547 Health and Welfare Fund, the sum of $8,371.17 as reimbursement for medical expenses. Plaintiffs appeal from the order and from the subsequent judgment. We affirm.

Sheet Metal Workers Local 547 Health and Welfare Fund (the Plan) is an employee welfare benefit plan pursuant to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) §§ 1-514, 29 U.S.C. §§ 1001-1144 (1976 & Supp. Y 1981). Gary Hunt is a participant in the Plan, and his son, Jeffrey, is a covered dependent. The Plan sought reimbursement in accord with its subrogation provision, Section VI, Subsection N, which, in pertinent part, reads:

This plan is subrogated to the extent of any payment or intended payment of benefits by this plan for health care coverage to each participant’s right of recovery therefor under any liability, casualty program, insurance or self-insurance program which is or becomes obligated to pay benefits to the participant or a dependent of the participant. * * * Any amounts recovered by or on behalf óf the participant or his dependents shall be apportioned as follows:
This plan shall be reimbursed to the extent of any payments made by the plan to or on behalf of a participant or his dependents. If any balance then remains from such recovery, it shall be applied to reimburse the participant * * *. The plan shall not be liable for any expenses in connection with such recovery of monies unless the plan [752]*752shall have agreed in writing to bear a proportion of all of the expenses * * *.

The primary issue presented on appeal is whether ERISA, §§ 1-514, 29 U.S.C. §§ 1001-1144 (1976 & Supp. V 1981), preempts the application of state subrogation law, as set forth in Westerndorf v. Stasson, 330 N.W.2d 699 (Minn.1983), to the Plan in this case.

Congress enacted ERISA in 1974 to protect participants of employee benefit plans and their beneficiaries from the abuses which previously existed in many retirement plans. See Note, ERISA: Preemption of State Health Care Laws and Worker Well-Being, 1981 U.Ill.L.Rev. 825, 825. The term “employee benefit plan” is defined as including both pension plans and welfare plans. See § 3(3), 29 U.S.C. § 1002(3). “The statute imposes participation, funding, and vesting requirements on pension plans. * * * It also sets various uniform standards, including rules concerning reporting, disclosure, and fiduciary responsibility, for both pension and welfare plans.” Shaw v. Delta Air Lines, Inc., — U.S. -, -, 103 S.Ct. 2890, 2896-97, 77 L.Ed.2d 490 (1983).

To protect the participants of the plans, ERISA contains broad enforcement provisions, including criminal and civil penalties. See §§ 501-514, 29 U.S.C. §§ 1131-1144. As part of this enforcement scheme, Congress provided in section 514(a), 29 U.S.C. § 1144(a), for pre-emption of “any and all State laws insofar as they may now or hereafter relate to any employee benefit plan” 1 covered by ERISA. State laws regulating insurance, banking, or securities are exempt from this pre-emption provision, as are generally applicable state criminal laws. See § 514(b)(2)(A), (b)(4), 29 U.S.C. § 1144(b)(2)(a), (b)(4).2 For purposes of section 514, the term “State law” includes “all laws, decisions, rules, regulations, or other State action having the effect of law, of any State.” See § 514(c)(1), 29 U.S.C. § 1144(c)(1).

The United States Supreme Court in Shaw v. Delta Air Lines, Inc., — U.S. -, 103 S.Ct. 2890, 77 L.Ed.2d 490 (1983), resolved the lower courts’ disagreement about the scope of ERISA’s pre-emption provisions. See id. at -, 103 S.Ct. at 2899. After reviewing Congress’ intent in enacting ERISA, the Court concluded that

Congress used the words “relate to” in § 514(a) in their broad sense. To interpret § 514(a) to preempt only state laws specifically designed to affect employee benefit plans would be to ignore the remainder of § 514. It would have been unnecessary to exempt generally applicable state criminal statutes from preemption in § 514(b), for example, if § 514(a) [753]*753applied only to state laws dealing specifically with ERISA plans.
Nor, given the legislative history, can § 514(a) be interpreted to pre-empt only state laws dealing with the subject matters covered by ERISA — reporting, disclosure, fiduciary responsibility, and the like. The bill that became ERISA originally contained a limited pre-emption clause, applicable only to state laws relating to the specific subjects covered by ERISA. The Conference Committee rejected these provisions in favor of the present language, and indicated that the section’s pre-emptive scope was as broad as its language.

Id, at -, 103 S.Ct. at 2900-01 (footnote omitted). The Court went on to hold that, “Given the plain language of § 514(a), the structure of the Act, and its legislative history, * * * the Human Rights Law and the Disability Benefits Law ‘relate to any employee benefit plan’ within the meaning of ERISA’s § 514(a).” Id. at -, 103 S.Ct. at 2901.

The only remaining issue for the Shaw Court was whether any of the narrow exceptions to § 514(a) save these laws from pre-emption. Id. at-, 103 S.Ct. at 2902. The Court held that New York’s Human Rights Law was pre-empted with respect to ERISA benefit plans only insofar as it prohibits practices that are lawful under federal law and that the Disability Benefit Law was not pre-empted by ERISA. See id. at -, 103 S.Ct. at 2906.

In the instant case, plaintiffs contend that the state subrogation law, as set forth in Westendorf v. Stasson, 330 N.W.2d 699 (Minn.1983), does not “relate to” the Plan.3 To support this position, plaintiffs rely on a footnote in the Shaw

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Hunt Ex Rel. Hunt v. Sherman
345 N.W.2d 750 (Supreme Court of Minnesota, 1984)

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Bluebook (online)
345 N.W.2d 750, 5 Employee Benefits Cas. (BNA) 1741, 1984 Minn. LEXIS 1283, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hunt-ex-rel-hunt-v-sherman-minn-1984.