74
OCTOBER TERM, 1997
Syllabus
MEDICAL CORP. et al.
certiorari to the united states court of appeals for the eighth circuit
No. 97-689. Argued April 29, 1998—Decided June 8, 1998
The Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985 (COBRA) amended the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) to permit a beneficiary of an employer's group health plan to elect continuing coverage when he might otherwise lose that benefit because of a "qualifying event," such as the termination of employment. When respondent Moore Medical Corporation fired James Geissal, it told him that COBRA gave him the right to elect continuing coverage under Moore's health plan. He so elected, but six months later, Moore told him that he was not entitled to COBRA benefits because on his date of election he was already covered by a group plan through his wife's employer, Trans World Airlines (TWA). Geissal filed suit against respondents (collectively, Moore), claiming, inter alia, that Moore was violating COBRA by renouncing an obligation to provide continuing coverage. He died while this suit was pending, and his wife replaced him as plaintiff. The Magistrate granted partial summary judgment to Moore, concluding that an employee with coverage under another group health plan on the date he elects COBRA coverage is ineligible for COBRA coverage under 29 U. S. C. § 1162(2)(D)(i), which allows an employer to cancel such coverage as of "[t]he date on which the qualified beneficiary first becomes, after the date of the election . . . covered under any other group health plan." The Eighth Circuit affirmed.
Held: An employer may not deny COBRA continuation coverage under its health plan to an otherwise eligible beneficiary because he is covered under another group health plan at the time he elects COBRA coverage. Pp. 79-87.
(a) Section 1162(2)(D)(i) speaks in terms of "becom[ing] covered," an event that is significant only if it "first" occurs "after the date of the election." Because James Geissal was a beneficiary of the TWA plan before he elected COBRA coverage, he did not "first become" covered under the TWA plan after the date of election, and Moore could not cut
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