Basil Shell and Marlene Shell v. Amalgamated Cotton Garment and Allied Industries Fund and Amalgamated Life Insurance

MORRIS SHEPPARD ARNOLD, Circuit Judge.

In mid-1990, Basil Shell was very seriously injured in a car accident. His medical expenses eventually totaled approximately $140,000, for which he submitted claims to his insurance plan. Although the insurance plan did not dispute his eligibility for payment of those claims, it insisted that before the claims would be processed and paid, Mr. Shell would have to execute a document granting a “primary lien” to the insurance plan on any proceeds that he might obtain “as a result of any judgement [sic ], settlement or other means, of any claim or cause of…