In Marin General Hospital v. Modesto & Empire Traction Co., ___ F.3d. ___, 2009 WL 2882832 (9th Cir. 2009), the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals considered whether section 502(a)(1)(B) of ERISA completely preempted state-law causes of actions for breach of contract, negligent misrepresentation, quantum meruit and estoppel brought by a hospital against a patient’s employer and its claims administrator based on an alleged oral agreement between the hospital and claims administrator to pay for services provided by the hospital. Because the claims could not be pursued under section 502(a)(1)(B), but rather relied on legal duties that were independent from duties required by the ERISA plan, the Ninth Circuit concluded that the state-law claims were not preempted, depriving the court of subject matter jurisdiction. Accordingly, removal from state court was improper and the case was remanded to the district court with instructions to remand the matter to state court.