Buzzard v. Holland’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

1 federal appellate · 1 district ·

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 4 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Under the terms of the UMWA 1974 Pension Plan, a Social Security disability award conclusively establishes the medical disability of the pension applicant. The Pension Plan further requires that the applicant show that he became disabled “as the result of a mine accident.” ... “The only reasonable interpretation of the requirement that total disability be ‘the result of a mine accident,’ therefore, is that it requires total disability to have been proximately caused by the mine accident. That is, if the plaintiff was injured in a mine accident and that injury, whether in combination with a previous or subsequent condition, is substantially responsible for plaintiffs inability to perform his job and for whatever medical and vocational reasons he is unable to perform an alternative job, then his total disability results from a mine accident.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 395 F. Supp. 2d 387 - O'Quinn v. Trustees, UMWA Health & Retirement Fund

2. “We generally review the district court’s order granting summary judgment de novo.... However, ... the Supreme Court [has] held that a denial of benefits challenged under [ERISA] is to be reviewed under a de novo standard unless the benefit plan gives the administrator or fiduciary discretionary authority to determine eligibility for benefits or to construe the terms of the plan.... If the plan confers such authority upon the [P]lan [A]dministrator, a deferential abuse of discretion standard applies to appellate review of the eligibility determination .... Because we have previously held that the 1974 Plan vests the Trustees with full and final authority to determine who is eligible for benefits, our review is limited to ascertaining whether the Trustees abused their discretion.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 761 F. Supp. 2d 1123 - Miller v. Monumental Life Insurance