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Mealey's ERISA

  • November 14, 2025

    Plaintiffs Get Discovery Extension, Extra Depositions In TIAA Cross-Selling Case

    NEW YORK — Over opposition from nonparties and defendants in a putative class Employee Retirement Income Security Act case potentially involving participants in thousands of retirement plans, a New York federal judge on Nov. 13 extended the fact discovery deadline and authorized the plaintiffs to take 10 additional depositions of nonparty plan sponsors.

  • November 14, 2025

    Judge: Software Engineer With Long COVID Was Due LTD Benefits

    LOS ANGELES — After weighing the opinions of treating and reviewing physicians, a California federal judge concluded that a software engineer “was unable to perform the specific duties required by his job with reasonable continuity due to diagnosed symptoms of cognitive impairment, brain fog, and fatigue likely resulting from long-haul COVID-19” and therefore entitled to long-term disability (LTD) benefits.

  • November 14, 2025

    Parties File 9th Circuit Briefs In LTD Denial Appeal Involving Long COVID

    SAN FRANCISCO — Issues including assessing differing medical opinions and whether new reasons for denial of long-term disability (LTD) benefits were improperly raised during a bench trial are disputed in Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals briefs in the case of a former underwriter who says he was disabled by cognitive impairments and other symptoms he attributes to long COVID.

  • November 14, 2025

    ERISA Fiduciary Breach Claim Survives Dismissal In LTD Benefits Case

    KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Allowing both claims to proceed in a financial analyst’s challenge to termination of his long-term disability (LTD) benefits, a Kansas federal judge declined to dismiss what she concluded was an alternative theory of liability for alleged breach of fiduciary duty under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.

  • November 13, 2025

    Wells Fargo Agrees To Pay $84M To Resolve Class Suit Over ESOP Dividends

    MINNEAPOLIS — Wells Fargo & Co. would pay $84 million to resolve a class action against it and two other defendants under a proposed settlement the plaintiffs on Nov. 12 asked a Minnesota federal court to grant preliminary approval; the Employee Retirement Income Security Act suit challenges how Wells Fargo used dividends of its preferred stock held in its 401(k)’s employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) fund.

  • November 10, 2025

    High Court Will Let U.S. Argue In Withdrawal Liability Case Over Timing Rule

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Solicitor General will participate as amicus curiae in yet-to-be-scheduled oral argument concerning a withdrawal liability decision under a grant made in an order list the U.S. Supreme Court issued Nov. 10; as detailed in its merits brief, the government urges the high court to reject the “timing rule” of Nat'l Ret. Fund v. Metz Culinary Mgmt. and uphold the challenged District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals decision.

  • November 10, 2025

    Partial Disability Claimant Wins Just Over $100,000 After Summary Judgment Ruling

    OAKLAND, Calif. — A long-term disability (LTD) claimant described by a California federal judge as having a “constellation of psychological and physical issues” was awarded retroactive partial disability benefits and interest totaling $100,849.01 pursuant to a stipulation the parties entered after she prevailed at summary judgment.

  • November 07, 2025

    PBMs Granted Extension In Appeal Over Arkansas Law Limiting Who Can Own Pharmacies

    . LOUIS — Pharmacy benefits managers (PBMs) that convinced an Arkansas federal judge that a law that barred PBMs from owning a pharmacy business in the state likely violates the U.S. Constitution’s commerce clause and is likely preempted by federal law have until Dec. 29 to respond to an appellant brief filed by the state in the Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals contending that the judge erred in granting motions for a preliminary injunction.

  • November 07, 2025

    3rd Circuit Affirms Plan Should Not Have Suspended Early Retirement Benefits

    PHILADELPHIA — The Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed a ruling requiring retroactive reinstatement of early retirement benefits in a nonprecedential opinion issued Nov. 6, concluding that the suspension was based on a flawed interpretation of a phrase in the multiemployer pension plan and that the plan forfeited its other arguments by not raising them in the trial court.

  • November 07, 2025

    High Court Signals Interest In Petition For Review Of ERISA Releases Ruling

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Nov. 6 requested a response to a certiorari petition in which an employer and related entities seek review of a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruling in a long-running class action concerning severance benefits, with the petitioners arguing that the decision “creates a roadmap for plaintiffs to evade” releases of Employee Retirement Income Security Act claims.

  • November 07, 2025

    Providers, AMA Urge High Court To Review No Surprises Act Ruling

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A medical society has filed an amicus curiae brief supporting a certiorari petition in which air ambulance providers seek review of a ruling concerning enforcement of No Surprises Act (NSA) independent dispute resolution (IDR) awards; additionally, in a part of their petition the society doesn’t address, the providers challenge a holding they say creates a 2-1 circuit split regarding Employee Retirement Income Security Act standing.

  • November 06, 2025

    3rd Circuit Won’t Rehear Overtime Contribution Case That Yielded Split Ruling

    PHILADELPHIA — With only a procedural explanation, the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals denied a union’s petition for panel and en banc rehearing in an appeal that yielded a split decision reversing judgment against an employer and a ruling that “the phrase ‘hours paid’ does not require increased contributions to multiemployer plans for overtime hours.”

  • November 06, 2025

    Stable Value Funds Are Focus Of ERISA Suits Over Alleged Imprudence

    Often echoing arguments seen in recent pension risk transfer litigation concerning reinsurance arrangements and the risk of insolvency, a firm representing at least six different plaintiffs in various federal jurisdictions filed putative class Employee Retirement Income Security Act cases challenging retirement plan use of certain guaranteed income funds (GIFs) and stable value funds (SVFs) that the plaintiffs claim no prudent fiduciary would have selected and retained.

  • November 06, 2025

    6th Circuit Sets Argument For Challenge To Ruling That PBM Is Partly Preempted

    CINCINNATI — The Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has scheduled oral argument for Dec. 10 in a challenge to a ruling that parts of a Tennessee law regarding pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) are “preempted to the extent they purport to govern self-funded” health plans that are subject to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act; the appeal has drawn amicus curiae input from numerous advocacy organizations.

  • November 05, 2025

    Full Dismissal Of Tobacco Surcharge Suit Granted In Rhode Island Federal Court

    PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Following a string of at least seven rulings in which similar putative class challenges to health plan tobacco surcharges survived wholly or in part, a Rhode Island federal judge on Nov. 4 granted full dismissal of a case that is part of a recent wave of Employee Retirement Income Security Act lawsuits.

  • November 05, 2025

    ERISA ‘Excessive Fee’ Settlements, Proposals Under $5M

    Class settlements below $5 million were proposed, granted preliminary approval or finalized in 25 “excessive fee” Employee Retirement Income Security Act cases between early August and late October.

  • November 04, 2025

    High Court Is Asked To Weigh Dismissal Of ERISA Private Equity Investments Suit

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Retirement plan participants have filed a certiorari petition but asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hold it until a pending petition concerning “a similar question” is resolved; both cases concern the role benchmarks play in pleading Employee Retirement Income Security Act claims.

  • November 04, 2025

    LTD Insurer To 11th Circuit: Affirm Ruling In Dispute Involving Tax Returns

    ATLANTA — Arguing that the plan terms gave its claims administrator the discretion to determine what constitutes sufficient proof of disability, a long-term disability (LTD) insurer filed a Nov. 3 brief asking the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to affirm summary judgment in its favor in a dispute involving interpretation of the term “work” and reject the claimant’s urging to take the position outlined in a report and recommendation the lower court declined to adopt.

  • November 03, 2025

    New York Federal Judge Grants Dismissal Of ERISA Forfeiture Lawsuit

    NEW YORK — Siding with the majority of courts that have considered dismissal motions in a much-watched wave of Employee Retirement Income Security Act cases, a New York federal judge dismissed a putative class action challenging a common use of forfeited nonvested matching retirement contributions, but the judge said the plaintiffs could amend some claims.

  • November 03, 2025

    Federal Judge Skips LTD Claimant’s Fees Tangle With Her Own Attorneys

    NEW YORK — Declining to exercise ancillary jurisdiction over a fee issue that involves a retainer agreement, a New York federal judge said that doing so in the otherwise concluded case concerning long-term disability (LTD) benefits “would require the Court to decide entirely new claims and would not result in judicial economy.”

  • October 31, 2025

    Fee Award Trimmed In 401(k) Management Suit Resolved By $8.75M Deal

    SAN FRANCISCO — A class settlement including an $8.75 million payment and other relief has been granted final approval in a suit over allegedly imprudent management of a 401(k), with a California federal judge also awarding slightly trimmed attorney fees of $2,179,000.

  • October 30, 2025

    Kentucky Federal Judge Grants Remand Of LTD Claim That Insurer Overlooked

    LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Citing a 2012 ruling, a Kentucky federal judge granted remand to a long-term disability (LTD) insurer’s claims administrator in a case where the plaintiff’s claim was overlooked for months because of an employee’s procedural mistake; the judge also said that it appears that the claimant “is eligible to receive a fee award because she has achieved some degree of success on the merits by virtue of the remand order.”

  • October 30, 2025

    Amici To High Court: Reject Timing Rule In Withdrawal Liability Case

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Amici curiae urging the U.S. Supreme Court to affirm a withdrawal liability decision and reject the “timing rule” of Nat'l Ret. Fund v. Metz Culinary Mgmt. include the federal government, which in addition to detailing its position in a merits amicus brief moved for permission to participate in oral argument, which has yet to be scheduled.

  • October 30, 2025

    4th Circuit Sets Argument In Long COVID Disability Benefits Case

    RICHMOND, Va. — The Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has scheduled oral argument for Dec. 9 in an appeal of a ruling that a claimant is owed past-due long-term disability (LTD) benefits because long COVID symptoms have disabled her from working as an engineer; a key issue in the case is whether de novo review was proper.

  • October 29, 2025

    Arbitration Participants Challenge DOL’s Deferred Compensation Advisory

    NEW YORK — Arguing that a recent U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) advisory opinion concerning a deferred compensation program is “flawed” and was obtained “for impermissible purposes,” three former Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC financial advisersfiled an Oct. 28 complaint invoking the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) and asking a New York federal court to vacate and set aside the advisory.