REMEDIES

equity

Sereboff v. Mid Atlantic Medical Services, Inc.

Issues

Does the limitation of remedies to “appropriate equitable relief” create a blanket prohibition against a claim for money owed in breach of a contract because such relief is traditionally not characterized as an equitable remedy?

 

With the passage of the Employee Retirement Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), Congress sought to regulate employee benefit plans, including employer-provided health care benefits. However, the particular scheme of remedies Congress created for both plan participants and plan providers has been a source of mischief for courts hearing claims of ERISA violations. Traditionally, the Supreme Court has held Congress to their particular word choice as to the remedies available to aggrieved parties, sometimes creating results that do not seem particularly fair to the lay observer. In Sereboff, the Court will again take up the issue of what remedies Congress contemplated when it envisioned “appropriate equitable relief” under ERISA.

Questions as Framed for the Court by the Parties

Can a plan fiduciary bring a civil action against a plan participant to obtain “appropriate equitable relief” under Section 502(a)(3) of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, 29 U.S.C. § 1132 (a)(3), where a term of the plan requires the participant to reimburse medical expenses advanced by the plan if the participant recovers money from a third party tortfeasor and possesses such payments in an identifiable fund?

Joel and Marlene Sereboff were injured in a car accident in the summer of 2000. They received almost $74,869.37 in payments for medical services from Mid Atlantic Medical Services, Inc. (“MAMSI”), their healthcare insurer under a plan provided through Marlene’s employer. 407 F.3d 212, 215 (4th Cir. 2005). Later, the Sereboffs recovered $750,000 from a third party they claimed was responsible for the accident. Id. at 216.

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Whitman v. Department of Transportation

Issues

Does the Civil Service Reform Act, which provides that that procedures established by collective bargaining agreements for redressing employment grievances serve as the "exclusive administrative procedures" available, preclude Federal employees from bringing actions in Federal court to redress grievances, even if the employee seeks equitable relief, such as an injunction against future drug tests, for claims that an employer violated an employee's constitutional rights?

 

Terry Whitman served as an air traffic controller with the Federal Aviation Administration for twenty years. Under FAA and Department of Transportation rules, Whitman and all other air traffic controllers were subject to random drug tests due to the "safety-sensitive functions" of their employment. From 1996 to 2002, Whitman was repeatedly subjected to such tests, even though the results were negative each time. He learned over the course of the years that he was required to take many more tests than his coworkers. Whitman felt that his employers were violating his constitutional right to privacy by using non-random searches, and Whitman wanted them to be stopped. He brought a suit in the Federal district court in Alaska seeking an injunction against further testing. The court dismissed his complaint, however, stating that under the Civil Service Reform Act, the Federal court had no power over his action, and that he had to use the proper administrative procedures under the Civil Service Reform Act to obtain the remedy he desired. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the district court. Now the Supreme Court must decide whether under the Civil Service Reform Act, Federal courts are precluded from hearing grievances for which the Act has already provided an administrative grievance procedure.

Questions as Framed for the Court by the Parties

1.? Whether 5 U.S.C. ? 7121(a)'s provision that the negotiated grievance procedures of a federal collective bargaining agreement be "the exclusive administrative procedures" to resolve grievances precludes an employee from seeking direct judicial redress when he would otherwise have an independent basis for judicial review of his claims.

2.? Whether the Civil Service Reform Act, 5 U.S.C. ? 7101 et seq., precludes federal courts from granting equitable relief for constitutional claims brought by federal employees against their employer.

Petitioner Terry Whitman ("Whitman") was employed as an air traffic controller at the Federal Aviation Administration's ("FAA") Anchorage Air Route Traffic Control Center. Brief of the Petitioner at 8-9.

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