Charles Dimry, former cornerback in the National Football League, is not giving up on his disability claims against several NFL disability plans. The NFL Player Supplemental Disability Plan and the Bert Bell/Pete Rozelle NFL Player Retirement plan recently filed a reply requesting, again, to dismiss Dimry’s claim of erroneously denied disability benefits for ex-players.
After suffering major injuries during his NFL career, followed by several invasive surgeries – including an allegedly botched surgery for a protruding spinal disc, Dimry applied for full disability and was denied. According to Dimry, the lingering pain after the surgery was so severe that he was unable to sit or stand for extended periods of times and ultimately had to quit his job. He was initially also denied line-of-duty benefits in 2008. According to court papers, Dimry has since been granted line-of-duty disability.
Last month, U.S. Distrit Judge James Donato sided with the retirement plans and reasoned that Dimry failed to demonstrate a ‘uniform practice’ of misconduct by the plans, as required under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act. However the judge allowed Dimry to amend his complaint, which he did.
The NFL dismissed the amended complaint, arguing that it lacked any factual allegations of ‘uniform practice’ beyond his own claim. Dimry on the other hand claims that the ‘uniform practice’ is exemplified by the arranged ‘specialist meetings’ where retained physicians are allegedly informed how to conduct examinations in order to make determinations that are in contradiction with the terms of the plan. The retirement plans accuse Dimry of engaging in “rank speculation.” “So what if the plan’s neutral physicians meet on occasions? Dimry has no idea what happens at these meetings….” The NFL argues that since the plan is a Tart-Hartley plan – jointly established by the NFL and NFL Players Association – the players hold half of the voting rights. As such, the NFL argues, it is unlikely that the players association would deny a fellow athlete his benefits. Furthermore, Dimry is also unable to “state a plausible reason why the NFL and the union…would want to create an unfair process,” the NFL said.