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September 09, 2026
DENVER — Reversing the denial of a claim for long-term disability (LTD) benefits, a Colorado federal judge said that “none of the evidence” the insurer relied on compared the claimant’s “cognitive functioning to the actual requirements of his position as a software engineer, or his ability to perform those functions on a continuous work schedule” and therefore the decision “is not founded on substantial evidence” and must go back to the insurer “for further consideration.”
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September 09, 2026
ATLANTA — Affirming summary judgment for an insurer that terminated a claimant’s long-term disability (LTD) benefits, the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said in an unpublished opinion that the insurer needed the documents to evaluate whether the claimant “satisfied the Test of Disability, so his refusal to provide them justified termination under the Plan.”
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September 09, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Under a stipulation a District of Columbia federal judge granted in a text-only docket entry, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. (PBGC) has until Sept. 16 to respond to a preliminary injunction request from 22 terminated multiemployer pension plans that allege that the agency is using an improper “waitlist scheme” to prevent them and their “25,000 participants and beneficiaries” from claiming special financial assistance (SFA) funding “that is likely to total in the hundreds of millions of dollars.”
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September 08, 2026
NEW ORLEANS — Oral argument before the en banc Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals is scheduled for Sept. 24 in a case that group health plans and related entities filed against a third-party administrator (TPA), and the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has filed an amicus curiae brief urging the appellate court to “reaffirm that surcharge is an equitable remedy in suits brought under” the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.
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September 04, 2026
DENVER — Saying there is a lack of “controlling authority to guide the Court’s analysis,” a Colorado federal judge found that retirees lacked standing to bring a putative class case that is part of a wave of pension risk transfer (PRT) challenges; he therefore granted dismissal without prejudice of all the claims in the Employee Retirement Income Security Act case.
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September 04, 2026
The First Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has scheduled oral argument for Sept. 16 in the most advanced appeal arising from a wave of putative class Employee Retirement Income Security Act challenges to tobacco surcharges, and at least five similar appeals are under way.
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September 03, 2026
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Granting a trade association’s motion for a preliminary injunction, an Illinois federal judge enjoined the Illinois Department of Insurance from enforcing a state law’s reporting requirements against the association’s members that are pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) serving health plans sponsored by employers and unions that are subject to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.
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September 02, 2026
ST. LOUIS — Saying in part that there was no clear error in the lower court’s refusal to credit a treating physician’s attempt to “walk back” his opinions that the claimant was capable of sedentary work, the Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed termination of long-term disability (LTD) benefits under an “any gainful occupation” definition of disability.
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September 02, 2026
SAN FRANCISCO — Applying the California doctrine of substantial compliance in an Employee Retirement Income Security Act case focused on an online effort to make a pension benefit election and designate a beneficiary, the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals reversed dismissal of one benefits claim and remanded for further proceedings; however, in a separate unpublished memorandum disposition, the appellate panel affirmed dismissal of two other claims.
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September 01, 2026
PASADENA, Calif. — Reviving a class action focused on the management of a multiemployer plan that used a single investment pool, the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said in an unpublished memorandum that the trial court “did not have the benefit of” a decision in which the appellate court subsequently addressed how to assess claims concerning the duty of prudence under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.
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September 01, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Urging the U.S. Supreme Court to deny a certiorari petition filed by participants in “top hat” deferred compensation and retirement plans, the U.S. government says in an Aug. 31 amicus curiae brief that the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals “erred in its analysis of surcharge” but “this case’s idiosyncratic factual context makes it an unsuitable vehicle for clarifying the propriety of surcharge relief” under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act; simultaneously, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) asked the Fifth Circuit for permission to file a late amicus brief in a separate ERISA case arguing that “surcharge is a form of ‘appropriate equitable relief’ that may be awarded for claims brought against fiduciaries for breaches of fiduciary duties.”
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August 31, 2026
PHILADELPHIA — Denying health insurers’ petition for rehearing but granting what it construed as hospitals’ request to modify a footnote, the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals issued an amended nonprecedential opinion partly reviving an Employee Retirement Income Security Act suit in which the hospitals allege that they were underpaid by at least $100 million for claims for out-of-network reimbursement.
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August 31, 2026
NEW ORLEANS — Skirting “thorny choice-of-law issues” but expressing doubt that a plan governed by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act “can tell its insured that no state law applies to him,” the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals issued an unpublished opinion affirming denial of long-term disability (LTD) benefits on the grounds that the claimant “was not totally disabled” even under de novo review.
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August 28, 2026
ATLANTA — Issuing an unpublished Aug. 27 opinion affirming a ruling against a pro se claimant whose long-term disability (LTD) benefits were terminated under an any-occupation definition of disability, the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said it was reasonable for the insurer “to rely on the findings of four medical professionals, in conjunction with the independent medical examination and the two vocational assessments, to find that [she] no longer met the definition of disabled under the policy because she could perform sedentary jobs in her area.”
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August 28, 2026
CHICAGO — Saying the appeal required “a straightforward application of one Supreme Court precedent, and a careful analysis of another,” the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed dismissal of a suit that sought a declaration that the Employee Retirement Income Security Act preempted two parts of a state regulation implementing the Arkansas Pharmacy Benefits Manager Licensure Act.
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August 28, 2026
NEW YORK — Granting final approval of a settlement that a class of employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) participants said “will deliver more than $22.5 million in total economic value through a combination of cash, loan reductions, and liquidity provisions,” a New York federal judge awarded $6.2 million for attorney fees and $727,406.93 for litigation expenses and $35,000 for settlement administration expenses as requested — but denied a request for two $10,000 service awards for the named plaintiffs.
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August 28, 2026
RICHMOND, Va. — The most advanced of the appeals springing from a wave of pension risk transfer (PRT) cases filed under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act is in the Fourth Circuit, where oral argument with the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) participating as amicus curiae is scheduled for Sept. 16.
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August 28, 2026
MINNEAPOLIS — Dismissal with prejudice has been granted pursuant to the parties’ stipulation in Minnesota federal court in a case over cost-sharing for medical services associated with preventive treatment that reduces the risk of HIV infection.
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August 27, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Amid an ongoing wave of private enforcement lawsuits concerning health plans’ tobacco surcharges, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) and other federal agencies on Aug. 26 said they recognize that “enforcement relief and additional clarification may be necessary to mitigate uncertainty for wellness programs that provide a reward to increase healthy choices and behaviors and lower healthcare costs.”
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August 27, 2026
CHICAGO — The Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed certification of a mandatory class in an Employee Retirement Income Security Act suit over retiree healthcare benefits but reversed a ruling in which it concluded that the lower court had wrongly “judicially estopped” the defendants “from disavowing any obligation to provide lifetime healthcare benefits to pre-1993 retirees based on statements” made in a separate case.
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August 26, 2026
PASADENA, Calif. — Ruling that the Employee Retirement Income Security Act preempts a promissory estoppel claim but not a negligent misrepresentation claim, the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals revived the latter state law claim in a reimbursement dispute that concerns surgery done by an out-of-network provider for an individual who had an employer-sponsored health plan.
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August 26, 2026
RICHMOND, Va. — Affirming rulings against the appellant on all other points — including a decision under which he was required to pay attorney fees totaling $122,951 — the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals reversed and remanded a claim in which he sought statutory Employee Retirement Income Security Act penalties for a retirement plan’s failure to produce an administrative services agreement (ASA) at his request.
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August 25, 2026
SAN FRANCISCO — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has stayed issuance of its mandate for a July 30 ruling in a putative class case pending resolution of a certiorari petition that the appellants say they have already filed. In the petition, the appellants argue that the panel ruling deepens a 7-1 circuit split concerning the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, with the Fourth Circuit’s recent Trauernicht v. Genworth Fin. Inc. ruling standing alone on one side of the conflict.
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August 24, 2026
TAMPA, Fla. — Granting summary judgment on the administrative record for the insurer in a suit where a claimant challenged termination of her long-term disability (LTD) benefits under an any-occupation definition of disability, a Florida federal judge said in part that because a second occupation that she could perform had been identified, “even assuming that Defendant should not have relied on ampoule sealer, Plaintiff has not shown that the asserted obsolescence of that occupation undermines Defendant’s ultimate determination.”
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August 24, 2026
CHICAGO — Initial briefing before the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has concluded in an appeal of a decision that upheld termination of long-term disability (LTD) benefits under a “regular care of a physician” requirement, with the insurer arguing that the claimant is seeking “to prevent the district court’s enforcement of the Plan terms” and the claimant countering that the insurer “offers no authority holding it can disclaim its way out of regulations and plan requirements for its communications, because none exists.”