Pre-emption defense with ERISA fails

Trial Notebook

By Steven P. Garmisa

Hoey & Farina

Posted November 20, 2018 3:30 PM

On the hook for yanking a Kane County case into federal court, UnitedHealthcare argued that the Employee Retirement Income Security Act completely pre-empted the Illinois Wrongful Death and Survival Act complaint that Lee Anne Wigdahl filed against it for allegedly failing to tell her deceased husband, Eric Wigdahl, to immediately go to an emergency room — rather than steering him to a less expensive urgent care center — when he called from California in serious distress to ask for an in-network referral …

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