"The Employees misconstrue the futility exception to the exhaustion requirement when they argue that, because exhaustion is an affirmative defense, United bears the burden of proving that it would not be futile... The failure of Hane's appeal, the existence of a fixed policy denying benefits as evidenced by the correspondence between Loughlin and the many TVPs with letters in the record, and the absence of any evidence before us to suggest that an appeal from Loughlin's letter was anything other than time wasted, lead us to conclude that the District Court did not abuse its discretion in applying the futility exception to the exhaustion requirement[.]" [Cottillion v. United Refining Co., No. 13-4633 (3d Cir. Mar. 18, 2015)]  MORE >>