Gallegos v. Mt. Sinai Medical Center, 210 F.3d 803 (7^th Cir. 2000)-Gallegos sued when UNUM Life Insurance Company ceased paying long-term disability benefits after seven months. UMUM had determined that her occupation of "Marketing Director" was a sedentary occupation to which she was eligible to return according to the information provided by her doctor.  The district court had agreed with UNUM that Gallegos had failed to exhaust her administrative remedies by not filing for a review of her claim within the 60-day deadline stated in the summary plan.

On appeal, Gallegos argued that this court should estop UMUM from asserting that she had to "exhaust administrative remedies" for the reason that the summary plan was misleading in its implication that a participant could pursue either UNUM's administrative review process or pursue relief through the federal court system.  This court held that "estoppel may be applied to preclude the assertion of failure to exhaust administrative remedies as a defense where that failure results from the claimant's reliance on written misrepresentations by the insurer or plan administrator."  However, in this case, Gallegos failed to show that she relied to her detriment on any of UNUM's misleading statements in deciding not to pursue an administrative appeal within the 60-day deadline.