Todd Rochow v. Life Ins. Co. of North America

The issue before us arises under a remedial statute, fashioned on the precepts of equity, which empowers a plan participant to bring a civil action to “recover benefits due” and “to obtain other appropriate equitable relief.” 29 U.S.C. §§ 1132(a)(1)(B) & (a)(3). In the parlance of ERISA and equity jurisprudence, the remedy is to “make whole” the injured. Here, Rochow — a company president whose mental capacity was destroyed over time by a brain infection — sought disability benefits from LINA starting in 2002. Over five years later, in October 2007, he received his first benefit payment (a…