Howard v. Cyprus Amax Minerals Benefits Committee, 2000 U.S. App. LEXIS 632 (6^th Cir.  Jan. 13, 2000) (Unpublished).-After sustaining a back injury at work, Howard sought total disability benefits from his employer’s Plan.  The plan denied the claim.  He appealed the district court's grant of summary judgment in favor of the Committee on his claim under 29 U.S.C. §  1132(a)(1)(B).  This court affirmed after concluding that the district court properly determined that the Committee's decision was not arbitrary or capricious.

At issue in this case was the 1992 Plan’s requirement that to be "totally disabled" a participant must have "unavoidable bodily injury or disease so as to be prevented from performing any type of work for the Company," and that disability must be permanent.  Here, Howard had returned to work for two short periods of time between the injury and the eventual denial of benefits.  The Social Security Administration had characterized Howard's work during the periods June-July 1993 and November-December 1994 merely as "unsuccessful work attempts," and granted Howard's application for total disability benefits.  The Plan Committee, however, decided that his returns to work defeated his claim of total disability.

Howard relied on a Tenth Circuit case, Wilcott v. Matlack, Inc., 64 F.3d 1458 (10^th Cir. 1995).  In Wilcott the court awarded benefits to an injured employee, reasoning that "subsequent aborted attempts [to work]" did not invalidate his claim under an ERISA plan which defined disability as a "continuous state of incapacity."  However, the Plan in Wilcott did not vest discretion in its administrator, and the review was one for "clear error."  Here, the arbitrary and capricious standard constrained this Court’s review, and therefore this court decided that the Committee could rationally conclude that Howard was not entitled to benefits.