MELLOY, Circuit Judge.
Bobby Gene Hankins was denied long-term disability benefits by Standard Insurance Company. Hankins sought review of Standard's determination under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), 29 U.S.C. § 1001 et seq. The district court
Beginning in April 2002, Hankins served as the Director of Commercial Security Operations at Stephens Investment Holdings, LLC. The parties disagree as to how best to characterize the job—Standard determined it was primarily a managerial position, whereas Hankins likens it to being a member of a "private police force"—however there is no genuine dispute over the actual duties of the job. Stephens generally describes the position as requiring Hankins:
Stephens further lists eighteen "Essential Duties and Responsibilities" for the position. Although many of those duties are purely administrative or supervisory, the list does include potentially physical requirements such as: "[a]ssist[ing] in responding to all emergency and crisis situations as necessary, including: transporting and assisting incapacitated persons, interceding in physical disturbances, subduing violent individuals, and assisting victims of offenses."
To ensure his fitness for these physical requirements, Hankins had to undergo periodic physical evaluations that tested, inter alia, his ability to run or walk one-and-a-half
Stephens sponsored an employee insurance policy administered by Standard. The Standard policy provided benefits to employees who were disabled from performing their "Own Occupation." The policy stated that Standard had "full and exclusive authority to control and manage the Group Policy, to administer claims, and to interpret the Group Policy and resolve all questions arising in the administration, interpretation, and application of the Group Policy." The policy also offered the following pertinent definitions:
On March 9, 2010, Standard's vocational case manager, Karol Paquette, submitted a report on Hankins's "Own Occupation Review." Paquette studied Arkansas law regarding the licensing requirement for private security personnel as well as the arresting authority of those private security personnel. Paquette compared Hankins's job description to those contained in the Department of Labor's Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT) and noted that, although Hankins's actual job duties included some physical demands, those physical demands were not common in the national economy. She determined that the occupational listing in the DOT that most closely resembled Hankins's job was "Security Manager (Alternate Title) Any Industry," which the DOT characterized as a sedentary occupation. Relying on Paquette's report, Standard determined Hankins was not disabled and denied Hankins's claim on April 8, 2010.
On December 14, 2010, Hankins requested reconsideration of Standard's denial. Hankins submitted a report by a vocational consultant, Robert White, who opined that Hankins's job at Stephens was similar to law-enforcement type security work. By contrast, White characterized the DOT security description used by Standard as only applying to factory/warehouse/industrial type security work. White offered two other occupational titles from the DOT which he believed more closely resembled Hankins's actual job: Public Safety Officer and Deputy Police Chief.
On March 15, 2011, Standard upheld its previous denial of disability benefits. Standard relied upon a second report by Paquette that contested White's conclusions. Paquette noted that White had performed a "transferrable skills analysis" under social security law. She explained that such an analysis was irrelevant under Standard's "Own Occupation" analysis because Standard's determination was governed by the language of the policy, not social security law. Paquette also disputed White's suggestion that occupational titles for government service were more appropriate for Hankins's job, reiterating the limited arrest authority for private security personnel that she analyzed in her previous report. Paquette asserted that White's conclusions were based only on the few physical requirements in Hankins's job responsibilities, while her previous determination had been based on an occupational title that best reflected Hankins's job in its entirety. Paquette noted that, on the whole, Hankins's job duties were consistent with a high level managerial job and that she believed her initial report to be correct.
Hankins brought suit in federal court to overturn Standard's denial of benefits. On November 1, 2011, the district court ruled on cross summary judgment motions, concluding that Standard's determination was reasonable and not an abuse of discretion. Hankins appeals.
We review a district court's grant of summary judgment de novo. Hackett v. Standard Ins. Co., 559 F.3d 825, 829 (8th Cir.2009). Where an ERISA plan gives the administrator discretionary power to construe ambiguous terms or make eligibility determinations, the administrator's decision is reviewed for an abuse of discretion. King v. Hartford Life and Acc. Ins. Co., 414 F.3d 994, 998-99 (8th Cir.2005) (en banc). In reviewing whether administrators have abused their discretion, we generally ask:
Finley v. Special Agents Mut. Benefit Ass'n, Inc., 957 F.2d 617, 621 (8th Cir. 1992). However, "[t]he dispositive principle remains . . . that where plan fiduciaries have offered a `reasonable interpretation' of disputed provisions, courts may not replace [it] with an interpretation of their own—and therefore cannot disturb as an `abuse of discretion' the challenged benefits determination." King, 414 F.3d at 999 (internal citations omitted).
Hankins argues that because the policy does not use the word "discretion," it cannot have granted Standard discretionary power to construe ambiguous terms. Hankins believes that the court should have applied a de novo review to
Our abuse of discretion review is guided by the Finley factors cited above; however, the only challenge Hankins advances on appeal is that Standard's interpretation of his occupation is contrary to the plain language of its policy.
We have previously reviewed an ERISA determination that relied on the DOT to establish a claimant's occupation. In Darvell v. Life Ins. Co. of North America, 597 F.3d 929 (8th Cir.2010), we reviewed an interpretation of the meaning of "regular occupation" in an ERISA plan. We acknowledged that, in the absence of a more precise definition, the phrase could "be interpreted as referring to the duties that are commonly performed by those who hold the same occupation as defined by the DOT (a `generic' approach), or the duties that the specific claimant actually performed for his employer (a `claimant-specific' approach)." Id. at 935. We concluded that it was reasonable for a plan administrator to apply the generic approach by using a DOT description instead of the claimant's specific job duties. Id. at 936.
Our decision in Darvell was in accord with a similar conclusion arrived at by the Sixth Circuit. In Osborne v. Hartford Life and Acc. Ins. Co., 465 F.3d 296 (6th Cir. 2006), the Sixth Circuit explained:
Id. at 299. We also acknowledged in Darvell, however, that other circuits have disagreed with this line of reasoning. See Bishop v. Long Term Disability Income Plan of SAP Am., Inc., 232 Fed.Appx. 792, 794-95 (10th Cir.2007) (insurer was required to consider claimant's actual job duties in determining the "essential duties" of his occupation); Lasser v. Reliance Standard Life Ins. Co., 344 F.3d 381, 385-86 (3d Cir.2003) (unambiguous meaning of "regular occupation" is the usual work that the employee is actually performing immediately before the onset of disability).
While these earlier cases help guide our analysis, all dealt with insurance policies that lacked pertinent language that is present in Standard's policy: the Standard policy provides an explicit definition of "Own Occupation." Unlike the policy in Darvell, Standard's policy avoids the ambiguous meaning of "occupation" by explaining that it is not limited to the individual claimant's actual and specific job duties. Standard's policy states that it will determine an occupation based on how similar jobs are "generally performed in the national economy," and it identifies similar jobs based on the "material duties" that are "generally required by employers." It is clear from this definition, and our holding in Darvell, that Standard's use of the DOT to determine Hankins's "Own Occupation" was not at odds with the plain language of the policy.
Hankins contends, however, that Standard abused its discretion because the occupation it considered did not include the physical requirements he believes were "material duties" of his job. However, the policy language does not focus on an individual claimant's specific duties, but the essential duties that are "generally required by employers." Reasonable persons may disagree over which of Hankins's duties were "generally required by employers," and therefore which DOT description bears the closest resemblance to his actual work. Our standard of review is narrow, and we will not overturn an administrator's determination if it is supported by substantial evidence, which is evidence that is "more than a scintilla but less than a preponderance." See Darvell, 597 F.3d at 934 (internal quotations omitted).
There is substantial evidence supporting Standard's denial of benefits. Its vocational case manager, Paquette, offered analysis of why she believed "Security Manager (Alternate Title) Any Industry" to be the closest fit based on the managerial and supervisory aspects of his job and noted that the physical standards required by Stephens were not generally required for private security managers in the national economy. Paquette also rejected Hankins's assertion that the titles offered by White were applicable. Paquette researched Arkansas law and reasonably concluded private security officers had no greater arrest authority than ordinary citizens.
Accordingly, we affirm the decision of the district court.