Barnett v. Cigna Healthcare

MEMORANDUM *

Cigna Health Plan of Arizona (“Cigna”) dismissed Doctor Francis Barnett pursuant to a clause in the employment agreement which Cigna believed allowed it to terminate Barnett without cause with 120 days’ notice. Barnett sued for breach of contract (and federal causes of action not at issue in this appeal) arguing that the employment agreement incorporated Cigna’s physician tenure policy which only allowed Cigna to terminate tenured physicians for cause.1

The district court concluded that the contract was ambiguous, and that a reasonable fact finder could conclude that Cigna had…