Tuyet Nguyen v. the Nationwide Insurance Companies and Affiliates Employee Health Care Plan

NOT RECOMMENDED FOR FULL-TEXT PUBLICATION
File Name: 05a0141n.06
Filed: February 24, 2005
Case No. 03-4071
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT
TUYET NGUYEN,
Plaintiff-Appellant,
v.
THE NATIONWIDE INSURANCE
COMPANIES AND AFFILIATES
EMPLOYEE HEALTH CARE PLAN,
Defendant-Appellee.
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ON APPEAL FROM THE
UNITED STATES DISTRICT
COURT FOR THE SOUTHERN
DISTRICT OF OHIO
BEFORE: SILER, BATCHELDER and ROGERS, Circuit Judges.
ALICE M. BATCHELDER, Circuit Judge. Appellant Tuyet Nguyen appeals from the
district court’s entry of judgment on the administrative record denying reinstatement of her long-
term disability benefits under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (“ERISA”),
29 U.S.C. § 1132. After carefully reviewing the record, the applicable law, the parties’ briefs and
counsels’ arguments, we are convinced that the district court did not err in its conclusions. We do
note that the district court applied the “treating physician rule” in this ERISA case pursuant our
decision in Darland v. Fortis Benefits Ins. Co., 317 F.3d 516 (6th Cir. 2003), which has since been
overruled by the Supreme Court in Black & Decker Disability Plan v. Nord, 538 U.S. 822 (2003)
(“treating physician rule” inapplicable in the ERISA context). But even using that rule, which
worked to Nguyen’s advantage because it favored the opinion of the claimant’s treating physician

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in an ERISA case, the district court found substantial evidence to contradict the opinion of Nguyen’s
treating physician. Because the issuance of a full opinion would serve no jurisprudential purpose
and would be duplicative, we AFFIRM the order denying benefits on the basis of the district court’s
well-reasoned opinion.

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