Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. v. Taylor (481 U.S. 58)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided April 6, 1987 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 481 U.S. 58 · 107 S. Ct. 1542
- Decided
- April 6, 1987
- Term
- October Term 1986
- Vote
- 9–0
- Majority author
- Justice O'Connor
- Issue area
- Federalism
- Disposition
- Reversed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
Opinion excerpt
Justice O’Connor delivered the opinion of the Court. In Pilot Life Ins. Co. v. Dedeaux, ante, p. 41, the Court held that state common law causes of action asserting improper processing of a claim for benefits under an employee benefit plan regulated by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), 88 Stat. 829, 29 U. S. C. § 1001 et seq., are pre-empted by the Act. 29 U. S. C. § 1144 (a). The question presented by this litigation is whether these state common law claims are not only pre-empted by ERISA, but also displaced by ERISA’s civil enforcement provision, § 502(a)(1)(B), 29 U. S. C. § 1132(a)(1)(B), to the extent that complaints filed in state courts purporting to plead such state common law causes of action are removable to federal court under 28 U. S. C. § 1441(b). General Motors Corporation, a Delaware corporation whose principal place of business is in Michigan, has set up an employee benefit plan subject to the provisions of ERISA for its salaried employees. The plan pays benefits to salaried employees disabled by sickness or accident and is insured by the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company (Metropolitan). General Motors employed Michigan resident Arthur Taylor as a salaried employee from 1959-1980. In 1961 Taylor was involved in a job-related automobile accident and sustained a back injury. Taylor filed a workers’ compensation claim for this…
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