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LINDA LOCOCO, Individually and as Executrix of the estate of and on behalf of Joseph S. LoCoco,
Plaintiff-Appellant,
v.
MEDICAL SAVINGS INSURANCE CO.,
Defendant-Appellee.


No. 07-3973

Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Southern District of Ohio at Columbus.
No. 05-01012—Norah McCann King, Magistrate Judge.
Argued: April 22, 2008
Decided and Filed: June 23, 2008
Before: GILMAN, ROGERS, and McKEAGUE, Circuit Judges.

_________________________
OPINION
_________________________

ROGERS, Circuit Judge. Plaintiff Linda LoCoco appeals the grant of summary judgment in favor of defendant Medical Savings Insurance Co. in this suit over medical benefits coverage. Shortly before her husband’s health insurance coverage from Medical Savings became effective, he was treated for a respiratory ailment that was later diagnosed as lung cancer. Medical Savings denied coverage for the cancer for the first year of the policy, concluding that the disease was a “preexisting condition.” Medical Savings later cancelled subsequent coverage for failure to pay premiums. Plaintiff then brought suit, claiming that the denial was improper because the cancer was not diagnosed until after the policy took effect and that the cancellation was ineffective for lack of notice. Because the terms of the policy provided both for the denial of benefits and the automatic termination of coverage under these circumstances, we affirm the grant of summary judgment.


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PLANNED PARENTHOOD CINCINNATI REGION; PLANNED PARENTHOOD OF GREATER CLEVELAND; PLANNED PARENTHOOD OF CENTRAL OHIO; PRETERM; DR. ROSLYN KADE; and DR. LASZLO SOGOR,
Plaintiffs-Appellees,
v.
TED STRICKLAND, Governor of the State of Ohio,
Defendant,
NANCY H. ROGERS, Interim Attorney General of the State of Ohio*; and JOSEPH T. DETERS, Hamilton County, Ohio, Prosecuting Attorney as representative of a class of all Prosecuting Attorneys in Ohio,
Defendants-Appellants.


Nos. 06-4422/4423

Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Southern District of Ohio at Cincinnati.
No. 04-00493—Susan J. Dlott, District Judge.
Argued: April 23, 2008
Decided and Filed: June 23, 2008
Before: MOORE, ROGERS, and McKEAGUE, Circuit Judges.

_________________________
ORDER OF CERTIFICATION TO THE
SUPREME COURT OF OHIO
_________________________

McKEAGUE, Circuit Judge. On remand from this court’s decision in Planned Parenthood v. Taft, 444 F.3d 502 (6th Cir. 2006), the district court permanently enjoined the enforcement of Ohio Revised Code (“O.R.C.”) § 2919.123 on the basis that it is unconstitutionally vague. The defendants-appellants, Interim Ohio Attorney General, Nancy H. Rogers, and Hamilton County, Ohio, Prosecuting Attorney, Joseph T. Deters, as representative for a class of all Ohio county prosecutors (collectively referred to in this order as the “State”), appealed.1 On appeal, both the State and Planned Parenthood have presented this court with contrary, yet plausible, interpretations of O.R.C. § 2919.123 that they respectively believe would save the statute from unconstitutionality.

Because neither side addressed the issue of certification in their briefs, we instructed them to discuss at oral argument the propriety of certifying the question of O.R.C. § 2919.123’s scope and meaning to the Supreme Court of Ohio. When asked about certification at oral argument, both Planned Parenthood and the State encouraged this court to speculate on how the Supreme Court of Ohio would interpret the statute as opposed to seeking an authoritative interpretation from the Ohio high court via certification. In our opinion, however, the interests of judicial federalism and comity strongly counsel in favor of providing the Supreme Court of Ohio with the opportunity to interpret O.R.C. § 2919.123. Accordingly, we sua sponte CERTIFY the questions set forth in § II, B of this order to the Supreme Court of Ohio pursuant to Rule XVIII of the Rules of Practice of the Supreme Court of Ohio. See generally Elkins v. Moreno, 435 U.S. 647, 662 (1978) (certifying, sua sponte, a question of state law to the Maryland Court of Appeals).