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IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF MARYLAND LESLIE A. HANDLER v. METROPOLITAN LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY * * * Civil No. JFM-01-161 * * * *****

MEMORANDUM Plaintiff Leslie A. Handler has brought this action against Metropolitan Life Insurance Company ("MetLife") to collect "accidental means" death benefits under the Federal Employees' Group Life Insurance Policy covering the life of her husband, Gordon R. Handler (the "insured"). MetLife has made a counter-claim seeking a declaratory judgment that it properly denied these benefits because the insured's death was caused by medical or surgical treatment of an illness, which the terms of the policy exclude from coverage. It has moved for summary judgment. For the reasons stated below, MetLife's motion will be granted.1 I. The insured was admitted to Northwest Hospital Center on December 26, 1997 with a 10day history of abdominal pain, chills and fever. He was diagnosed with an intra-abdominal abscess and opted for exploratory surgery. The surgery was performed on December 27, 1997 and it revealed appendicitis, sigmoid diverticulitis, inflammation and infection. The surgeon performed an appendectomy, drainage of multiple abscesses, sigmoid resection, and a colostomy. At the end of the surgery, a central venous pressure catheter was inserted in the insured's left
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In its motion, MetLife has asked to be awarded the costs of defending this suit. Neither party addressed this issue in its brief so I will deny the request. 1

subclavian vein for the purpose of administering nutrition. On December 30, 1997, the insured began to experience shortness of breath and excess fluid in his right lung, a condition referred to as a pleural effusion. On January 1, 1998, he went into cardiac arrest and became neurologically unresponsive. On January 5, 1998, he was transferred to St. Agnes hospital where he died on January 7, 1998. The insured's Certificate of Death stated that the immediate cause of death was "pleural effusion with complications due to (or as a consequence of) perforated mediastinum during total parenteral nutrition catheter placement." Def.'s Attachment 2, Ex. A. The Post Mortem Examination Report concluded that "the right braciocephalic vein (a major blood vessel) was perforated, along with a portion of the right lung with the catheter. This allowed the nutritional fluid to collect in the right chest." Def.'s Attachment 2, Ex. B at 6. In January 1998, Plaintiff submitted a claim for the proceeds of the insured's life insurance policy. MetLife paid Plaintiff the basic life insurance benefits and interest under the policy in the amount of $85,041.91 but refused to pay the "accidental means" death benefits to Plaintiff on the ground that the insured's death was excluded from coverage. The "accidental means" portion of the policy states that "in no case shall any payment be made for death . . . (1) caused wholly or partly, directly or indirectly, by disease or bodily or mental infirmity, or by medical or surgical treatment or diagnosis thereof . . . ." Def.'s Attachment 1. II. Metlife argues that there is no factual dispute that the insured died as a result of surgical treatment of his illness and that it properly denied "accidental means" benefits to Plaintiff under the terms of the policy. Plaintiff argues that the insurance policy's use of the term "treatment" is 2

ambiguous because it is subject to multiple interpretations and that under her interpretation the circumstances of the insured's death do not fit within the policy's exclusion. In support of her position, Plaintiff has submitted an affidavit from Dr. Lawrence Repsher. First, Repsher states that the placement of a catheter for nutritional purposes at the conclusion of the insured's surgery "was not an element of Mr. Handler's surgical treatment (as the object of his surgery was completed) . . . ." Repsher Aff. at

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Maryland Law