William F. Falandays v. United States District Court, Eastern District Penn Treaty American Corp.

NOT RECOMMENDED FOR FULL-TEXT PUBLICATION
File Name: 04a0121n.06
Filed: November 22, 2004
Case No. 03-1148
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT
WILLIAM F. FALANDAYS, )
)
Plaintiff-Appellant, )
) ON APPEAL FROM THE
v. ) UNITED STATES DISTRICT
) COURT, EASTERN DISTRICT
PENN TREATY AMERICAN CORP.; ) OF MICHIGAN
UNITED INSURANCE GROUP AGENCY, )
INCORPORATED, )
)
Defendants-Appellees. )
)
__________________________________________)
BEFORE: SUHRHEINRICH, BATCHELDER and COLE, Circuit Judges
ALICE M. BATCHELDER, Circuit Judge. William Falandays appeals the order of the
district court granting summary judgment to the defendants on Falandays’s claims of breach of
contract and violation of ERISA. We have carefully reviewed the record, the applicable law and the
parties’ briefs, and we conclude that, with respect to the breach of contract claim, the district court’s
opinion thoroughly and accurately sets out both the undisputed facts and the governing law, and that
no jurisprudential purpose would be served by the issuance of a full written opinion by this court.
For the reasons stated in the district court’s opinion, we will affirm the judgment dismissing with
prejudice the breach of contract claim.
We further conclude that although the district court erred in finding that no genuine issue
remained for trial with regard to Falandays’s claim that he had not been informed of the 401(k) plan

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by United Insurance Group Agency, Incorporated (“UIG”), the ERISA claim nonetheless must be
dismissed without prejudice for failure to exhaust administrative remedies. See Miller v.
Metropolitan Life Ins. Co., 925 F.2d 979, 986 (6th Cir.1991) (“[t]he administrative scheme of
ERISA requires a participant to exhaust his or her administrative remedies prior to commencing
suit.”).
Accordingly, we AFFIRM the portion of the judgment of the district court dismissing with
prejudice the breach of contract claim, and we VACATE the portion of the judgment dismissing
with prejudice the ERISA claim, and we REMAND that claim to the district court with instructions
that it be dismissed without prejudice.

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