On June 27, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against a Houston widow’s rightful claim to her husband’s life insurance benefits by refusing to even hear the case. Melissa Amschawand-Bellinger, whose husband, Thomas, died at the age of 30 in 2001 from a rare form of heart cancer, told reporters “I’m heartbroken about [the decision].”
On the basis of a frivolous and questionable legal technicality, billion-dollar employer Spherion Corp. refused to honor its policy and pay $426,000 in life insurance benefits. Instead, it chose only to refund a couple of thousand in paid premiums.
But a mere refund is not what the Bellingers and millions of other working-class people pay thousands of dollars a year to get. People cough up hard earned money in order to protect their families with insurance from unexpected and costly events, such as serious illness and death. Spherion’s premium refund will not even cover the cost of the funeral, said Melissa Bellinger. (Miami Herald, July 8)
According to Spherion, Thomas Bellinger failed to report to work for at least one day after a new policy took effect. Melissa has maintained that her husband did everything correct and in accordance with policy requirements, “but his employer never informed him of [this] requirement, refused to give him the life insurance plan documents that would have revealed it and assured him he was covered when the company switched life insurers.” (Houston Chronicle, June 27)
Refusing to accept Spherion’s unjust denial, Melissa Bellinger sued the company under the Employment Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). But a federal trial judge in Houston and the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans both ruled against her, citing legal loopholes found in the statute.
Passed in 1974, ERISA was intended to protect the pensions and retirement plans of workers in private industries and provide them clear avenues of legal recourse. The law could not have come without the struggle waged by the labor movement. All such laws, however, are subject to consistent attacks from the profit-seeking corporations and legislators in Washington. Changing interpretations of the statute and amendments have nearly all benefited the bosses.
This case represents another attempt to diminish workers’ rights. The federal courts based their claim denials in ERISA’s language, citing the inability of workers to “sue for monetary relief equal to the insurance benefits.”
It becomes clear through instances such as this that under capitalism, laws are not written to protect the majority of people, but rather the private, corporate interests of a tiny ruling minority. Corporations like Spherion will use the vast amount of resources at its disposal to manipulate the law and take advantage of hardships faced by working-class people like the Bellingers. “I can’t think of anyone who is more vulnerable than when they’re dying,” said Melissa Bellinger. Such tragic vulnerabilities are inevitably exploited under capitalism.
There is an alternative. Socialism places the needs of people before profit margins and stock dividends, and enshrines into law basic social rights, like health care, pensions and education. There should be no more tragedies like the one suffered by the Bellingers. A united struggle to demand real change, a revolutionary transformation of society, is needed. No worker should be robbed of their livelihood and all that they deserve.
