Employees Retirement System Texas and Metropolitan Life Insurance Company v. Joyce M. Blount

After her husbands death, Joyce M. Blount sued Employees Retirement System of Texas ("ERS") and Metropolitan Life Insurance Company in Travis County District Court, seeking a trial de novo for a contested insurance claim arising under a uniform group insurance program for state employees. Metropolitan paid $4,000 in basic life insurance but denied payment of her $46,000 claim for optional accidental death benefits. In December of 1981, the ERS Board of Trustees recommended a denial of the accidental death benefits. The trial court reviewed the record under substantial evidence review, and found that substantial evidence did exist to support the agencys decision. The court of appeals reversed the judgment of the trial court and remanded in the interest of justice, holding that the case was tried under the wrong standard, as Blount had a common law right to bring her action in district court as a trial de novo. 677 S.W.2d 565. We grant the motion for rehearing and the applications for writ of error, and, pursuant to Tex. R. Civ. P. 483, without hearing oral argument, we reverse the judgment of the court of appeals and affirm the judgment of the trial court.