Case: 18-30918 Document: 00515049788 Page: 1 Date Filed: 07/25/2019 IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FIFTH CIRCUIT United States Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit FILED No. 18-30918 July 25, 2019 Lyle W. Cayce Clerk MICHAEL FACIANE, Plaintiff - Appellant v. SUN LIFE ASSURANCE COMPANY OF CANADA, Defendant - Appellee Appeals from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana Before OWEN, SOUTHWICK, and HIGGINSON, Circuit Judges. STEPHEN A. HIGGINSON, Circuit Judge: Michael Faciane, a beneficiary of a long-term disability plan governed by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) and administered by Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada, alleged that Sun Life had miscalculated his benefits since 2008. Sun Life argued that the contractual limitations period for Faciane’s claim had long since lapsed. The district court granted summary judgment to Sun Life, and we affirm. I Michael Faciane was employed by Capital One Financial Corporation and was a member of its long-term disability (LTD) benefits plan when he Case: 18-30918 Document: 00515049788 Page: 2 Date Filed: 07/25/2019 No. 18-30918 suffered a work-related injury in June 2006. 1 Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada administers the LTD plan, and in March 2008, it determined that Faciane was eligible for benefits. At this point, Faciane and Sun Life had a dispute: whether Faciane had a “buy up plan” or just the standard plan. If he had the buy-up plan, his benefits would pay out 66.67% of his “basic monthly earnings”; if not, just 50%. A “claim control log” maintained by Sun Life shows various calls with Faciane and inquiries by Sun Life employees in early and mid-2008 to determine which percentage should apply. In a letter dated March 31, 2008, Sun Life said that Faciane was entitled to a benefit amount of 50% of his basic monthly earnings, explaining that it did not have enough information to determine that he had the buy-up plan. 2 The letter also indicated that Sun Life had calculated Faciane’s basic monthly earnings as $5,134.16. Due to various offsets, his monthly net benefit was the plan minimum, $100. 1 Originally Faciane was employed by Hibernia Bank, which Capital One acquired. 2 The letter included the following relevant text: Your benefits have been calculated as follows, based on the information we have currently in your file: Basic Monthly Earnings $ 5134.16 Monthly Gross Benefit at 50% $ 2567.08 Minus SS Primary Benefit - $ 1505.00 Minus SS Dependent Benefit - $ 728.00 Minus Workers Compensation Benefit - $ 1967.33 Minus Salary Continuation - $ 2026.00 Minimum Net Monthly Benefit $ 100.00 You maybe [sic] eligible for Long Term Disability Benefits under the buy up plan of 60% and your salary continuation may have stopped, [sic] we have made several attempts to your employer [sic] to obtain this information and were unsuccessful. We had to make a decision on your claim therefore [sic] we made a decision on the information we have on file. In order to determine if you are ...
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