Excerpt: As readers might recall, the Supreme Court case of Metlife v. Glenn from this past [year] basically left the Firestone review standard for denial of benefits alone and held that a conflict of interest that a dual-role insurer has is just one factor to take into account in determining whether the plan administrator abused his discretion in denying benefits to a plan participant or beneficiary. I predicted back then that this would lead to more ERISA plaintiffs losing their denial of benefit claims under Section 502(a)(1)(B) .... Unfortunately, it looks like I am turning out to be right. Exhibit A: Champion v. Black & Decker (U.S.) Inc., No. 07-1991 (4th Cir. 12/19/08).  MORE >>