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Mealey's ERISA

  • March 06, 2026

    Climate Risk Allegations Add Twist To ERISA Lawsuit Over 401(k) Fund

    SEATTLE — Adding what may be a novel climate risk twist to a common type of Employee Retirement Income Security Act lawsuit, a former employee of commercial real estate services firm Cushman & Wakefield U.S. Inc. sued it and related parties over selection and retention of a 401(k) plan fund that she says “boasts an unsavory combination of financial underperformance and unreasonably high fees, while at the same time exposing investors to massive amounts of climate-related financial risk that threaten to wipe out years of savings under any number of highly plausible scenarios.”

  • March 05, 2026

    2nd Circuit Affirms Mixed Ruling In Family’s Pension Plan Dispute

    NEW YORK — In a per curiam summary order, a Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed a mixed Employee Retirement Income Security Act ruling that followed a three-day bench trial in a family dispute over management of a since-terminated defined-benefit pension plan.

  • March 05, 2026

    TIAA Gets ERISA Suit Over Cross-Selling Narrowed For Lack Of ‘Class Standing’

    NEW YORK — Greatly narrowing a putative class suit in which plaintiffs challenging purported cross-selling done by a third-party service provider have sought to represent participants in thousands of retirement plans, a New York federal judge on March 4 ruled that the plaintiffs “may not attempt to pursue classwide claims for those plans in which they did not participate” because they didn’t show “class standing” as required in the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.

  • March 05, 2026

    On De Novo Review, LTD Claimant Is Found To Be Physically Disabled

    MADISON, Wis. — Granting each side a partial victory, a Wisconsin federal judge decided on de novo review that a long-term disability plan (LTD) administrator must pay benefits because physical impairments rendered the claimant disabled under an own-occupation standard, but the administrator is allowed to recover overpayment caused by the claimant’s receipt of Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) benefits.

  • March 04, 2026

    Split 3rd Circuit Affirms Ruling Against Multiemployer Fund Involving Timeliness

    PHILADELPHIA — Affirming a decision against a multiemployer pension plan fund in a 2-1 opinion issued March 3, the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that “timely notice and demand is an element of a withdrawal liability claim, so the existence of this element may be decided by a court sua sponte and without first submitting the matter to an arbitrator.”

  • March 04, 2026

    4th Circuit Affirms Use Of De Novo Review For Untimely LTD Decision

    RICHMOND, Va. — Affirming a lower court’s use of the de novo standard of review in a long-term disability (LTD) benefits case because the plan administrator failed to meet a regulatory deadline during the administrative appeal of its initial decision, the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on March 3 upheld a ruling that the appellee is owed past-due benefits because long COVID symptoms have disabled her from working as an engineer.

  • March 04, 2026

    4th Circuit Backs Trial Court In ERISA Plan Termination Case

    RICHMOND, Va. — Concluding in an unpublished opinion that the trial court properly applied the governing principles of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, “credited evidence where warranted, and rejected claims where the proof fell short,” the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on March 3 affirmed two denials of class certification and two other rulings in a long-running case over termination of a retiree welfare benefits plan that was the subject of consolidated appeals.

  • March 02, 2026

    Top Hat Plan Administrator Urges Supreme Court To Skip Cert Petition

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a Feb. 27 respondent brief that the U.S. Supreme Court requested, the trust administrator for “top hat” deferred compensation and retirement plans contends that there is “no bona fide split” on a question regarding equitable relief under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, that the petitioners don’t even argue that there is a split on the other question concerning preemption and that “[n]o guidance or uniformity is needed in this unusual factual context.”

  • March 02, 2026

    5th Circuit Affirms Standard Of Review, Denial Of ERISA Severance Benefits

    NEW ORLEANS — Distinguishing a sister circuit’s ruling that upheld an award of benefits under the same Employee Retirement Income Security Act severance plan following de novo review, the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in an unpublished opinion agreed with the lower court that the abuse-of-discretion standard applies and substantial evidence supported denial of benefits under the plan’s “good reason” clause.

  • March 02, 2026

    ERISA Forfeiture Dismissal Appeals Update: Oral Argument And DOL Briefs

    Appellate courts have yet to weigh in on the wave of putative class Employee Retirement Income Security Act challenges to a common use of forfeited nonvested matching retirement contributions, but the U.S. Department of Labor has filed amicus curiae briefs supporting affirmance in four of the 10 pending appeals of rulings dismissing such cases, and the Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has scheduled oral argument for March 18 in one of those appeals.

  • March 02, 2026

    Withdrawal Liability Is Focus Of Yet Another Certiorari Petition

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court has been presented with yet another certiorari petition concerning withdrawal liability, with the petitioners who filed the latest request saying that the ruling they are challenging regarding federal special financial assistance (SFA) that was awarded to multiemployer pension plans “implicates multiple circuit splits,” including one that the high court has already agreed to resolve, and warning that the ruling will have “seismic” economic impacts if not reversed.

  • February 27, 2026

    Retirees File 8th Circuit Appeal In ERISA Pension Actuarial Equivalence Case

    ST. LOUIS — Retirees have filed an Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals challenge to a ruling that ended their putative class Employee Retirement Income Security Act suit actuarial equivalence case by excluding their expert’s testimony and entering summary judgment against them.

  • February 26, 2026

    Nonparties Win Subpoena Fight In Case Over TIAA Cross-Selling

    NEW YORK — Saying in a memo endorsement order that she “does not believe it is appropriate” under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26 “to force the nonparty Universities to bear this burden for information of such limited relevance,” a New York federal judge denied a motion to compel compliance with subpoenas that was filed by the plaintiffs in a putative class Employee Retirement Income Security Act case potentially involving participants in thousands of retirement plans.

  • February 25, 2026

    Consent Order Closes Case DOL Filed Over 2016 ESOP Transaction

    NEW YORK — An Employee Retirement Income Security Act lawsuit that the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) filed over a July 2016 Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) deal has been resolved under a consent order and judgment that the agency told a New York federal court consists of “debt forgiveness totaling $14 million; cancellation of warrants giving defendants the right to purchase 40% of the company; and cash payments (including penalties) totaling $1.1 million all coming from the persons that caused and knowingly participated in the violations.”

  • February 25, 2026

    D.C. Federal Judge Nixes Bid To Amend Complaint In Dismissed PRT Case

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Roughly 11 months after issuing a dismissal without prejudice for lack of standing, a District of Columbia federal judge on Feb. 24 declined to let Alcoa USA Corp. retirees file a second amended putative class complaint challenging pension risk transfers (PRTs) under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.

  • February 24, 2026

    Judge Confirms Arbitration Awards Including Nearly $2.4M For Attorney Fees

    PHOENIX — Resolving competing motions in favor of an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) participant who filed a putative class complaint but was forced into individual arbitration, an Arizona federal judge confirmed an $11,029.50 arbitration award and an order awarding $2,359,909 in attorney fees incurred during the arbitration proceedings and $132,310.97 in arbitration costs.

  • February 23, 2026

    Claimant Who Sought Disability Benefits For Long COVID Loses Case

    BURLINGTON, Vt. — Granting judgment on the administrative record against a claimant who unsuccessfully sought short-term and long-term disability (STD and LTD) benefits due to symptoms he attributed to long COVID despite being awarded disability benefits by the Social Security Administration (SSA), a Vermont federal judge on Feb. 20 said she found “no evidence that Plaintiff was intentionally deceitful” but concluded that he “is not a reliable source of information due to his conflicting statements, self-described poor memory, psychiatric symptoms, and extensive marijuana use.”

  • February 20, 2026

    Amici Urge High Court To Review Federal Circuit Takings Ruling In Pension Case

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A retiree’s widow, public policy group Manhattan Institute (the Institute) and several law professors are among the amici curiae that filed briefs on Feb. 19 urging the U.S. Supreme Court to grant certiorari and reverse a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruling that the Multiemployer Pension Reform Act of 2014 (MPRA) “was not a physical taking and plaintiffs did not prove it was a regulatory taking” and therefore the attempt by a certified class of retirees to get federal compensation for cuts made to their vested pension benefits failed.

  • February 20, 2026

    Deal Including $13.4M Payment Proposed In ERISA Fees, Funds Lawsuit

    SPRINGFIELD, Mass. — In a settlement that a Massachusetts federal court has been asked to preliminarily approve, a class action where 401(k) plan participants challenge record-keeping and managed account fees and inclusion of two allegedly underperforming investment options would be resolved by a $13.4 million payment and nonmonetary relief; the parties reached a tentative agreement less than a month before a rare Employee Retirement Income Security Act jury trial was scheduled to begin.

  • February 20, 2026

    Hundreds Of NSA Suits Are Stayed Over Potential Shift To ERISA, State Law

    NEWARK, N.J. — Unofficially referring to one case as the lead, New Jersey federal judges have stayed hundreds of similar suits that medical providers initially filed under the No Surprises Act (NSA) but are expected to amend to assert Employee Retirement Income Security Act and unjust enrichment claims; an opposed pre-motion letter request concerning a dismissal bid is pending in that lead case.

  • February 20, 2026

    Judge: Government Cannot Be Forced To Enforce COVID Test Reimbursement Statutes

    SAN FRANCISCO — In a lawsuit brought by a COVID-19 diagnostic test provider seeking to force the federal government to enforce provisions of COVID-era legislation providing for reimbursement for COVID-19 testing by health insurers, a California federal judge granted the government’s motion to dismiss after finding that whether and how to enforce the statutes was within the discretion of the government.

  • February 19, 2026

    2nd Circuit Resolves MPPAA Interpretation Case In Employer’s Favor

    NEW YORK — Resolving what it said was “a split between two district courts in our Circuit” and saying the “case presents a novel legal question in this and other Circuits,” the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Feb. 18 affirmed an interpretation of the phrase “unfunded vested benefits” in the Multiemployer Pension Plan Amendments Act (MPPAA) that reduced withdrawal liability from $1.8 million to zero for an exit caused by employees’ decision to switch unions.

  • February 18, 2026

    Attorney Fees Exceeding $96M Awarded In ERISA Residual Annuities Case

    NEW YORK — Wrapping up a decade-old Employee Retirement Income Security Act lawsuit over residual annuities (RAs) that resulted in a $332 million class settlement, a New York federal judge on Feb. 17 granted awards from the common fund as requested in amounts including $96.28 million for attorney fees and $10,000 for a service award.

  • February 18, 2026

    Judge: LTD Claimant Met Only Own-Occupation Definition Of Disability

    GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — On de novo review of a case challenging termination of long-term disability (LTD) benefits for a marketing agency account executive who was diagnosed with “an acute intractable headache,” a Michigan federal judge ruled that the claimant is entitled to benefits under the plan’s initial “regular occupation” definition of disability but not under the subsequent “any gainful occupation” definition.

  • February 18, 2026

    Suit That Former Physician’s Assistant Filed Over LTD Benefits Is Dropped

    LYNCHBURG, Va. — Pursuant to a joint stipulation, dismissal with prejudice has been entered in a suit that a former emergency room physician’s assistant filed against the claims administrator that terminated his long-term disability (LTD) benefits; the plaintiff said he “underwent a PET/CT scan that indicated Alzheimer’s dementia” and argued in part that discovery from other lawsuits has shown that the insurer’s reviewer “denies 85-90% of all disability claims she reviews.”