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Mealey's ERISA

  • March 18, 2026

    LTD Insurer To 9th Circuit: Affirm Pre-Existing Condition Exclusion Ruling

    SAN FRANCISCO — Describing the ruling at issue as “plausible, logical and supported by the record,” an insurer urged the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to affirm an order that upheld its denial of long-term disability (LTD) benefits under a pre-existing condition exclusion.

  • March 18, 2026

    2nd Circuit Finds No Clear Error In LTD Ruling Involving Purported Long COVID

    NEW YORK — Saying in part that it found no error “in the district court’s decision to assign minimal weight to [the claimant]’s self-reported symptoms and to focus, instead, on the paucity of objective record evidence supporting her claimed inability to work,” the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals issued a March 17 summary order affirming judgment for a long-term disability (LTD) plan administrator that denied a claim that was based on a nurse practitioner’s purported symptoms of long COVID.

  • March 17, 2026

    Split 6th Circuit Revives 2 ERISA Cases, Requires Reasonable Assumptions

    CINCINNATI — In a 2-1 ruling, the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on March 16 revived two putative class suits contesting the use of decades-old mortality tables in calculating certain pension benefits, with the majority concluding that the Employee Retirement Income Security Act “prohibits employers from using unreasonable, inappropriate actuarial assumptions” when making those calculations.

  • March 17, 2026

    Judge: Nurse Is Physically Disabled Under LTD Plan’s Terms, Deserves Benefits

    PHOENIX — Using “heightened skepticism” because of a structural conflict of interest and “procedural irregularities,” a judge sitting by designation in an Arizona federal court ruled that a registered nurse is due long-term disability (LTD) benefits because the insurer’s failure to view her “conditions and symptoms in the aggregate was a consequential factor that amounted to an abuse of discretion.”

  • March 16, 2026

    Insurer’s $30M Overpayment Counterclaim Against COVID Testing Lab Dismissed In Part

    NEWARK, N.J. — In a lawsuit brought by a medical testing lab seeking reimbursement from health insurers for COVID-19 testing, a New Jersey federal judge on March 13 dismissed state law counterclaims by the insurers related to fraudulent overbilling with prejudice and counterclaims based on duplicative billing and billing for ancillary tests without prejudice but left in place overpayment claims sought under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA).

  • March 16, 2026

    Judge: Short-Term Disability Plan Is Payroll Practice Exempt From ERISA

    BOSTON — Concluding that the “payroll practice exception” applies, a Massachusetts federal judge dismissed a suit concerning a self-insured short-term disability plan (STDP) for lack of subject matter jurisdiction on the grounds that the plan is not governed by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.

  • March 16, 2026

    Former Transactional Attorney Wins LTD Case In Massachusetts Federal Court

    BOSTON — Calling the insurer’s determination “arbitrary and capricious in multiple respects,” a Massachusetts federal judge largely granted summary judgment in favor of a former attorney who challenged termination of her long-term disability (LTD) benefits.

  • March 13, 2026

    Deal For $27.5M Plus Passes Reported In Suit Over Early Retirement Policy

    CHICAGO — Plaintiffs who appealed dismissal of their putative class suit over a United Airlines Inc. early retirement policy would accept $27.5 million and “8 vacation passes” per member of the proposed settlement class to resolve the case under a deal they outlined for an Illinois federal court in a motion for an indicative ruling.

  • March 12, 2026

    Former NFL Player Sues Over Denial Of His Claim For Disability Benefits

    NORFOLK, Va. — Claiming that his application for total and permanent (T&P) disability benefits didn’t get “a full and fair review” and that “the lasting effects of his injuries . . . render him substantially unable to engage in any occupation or employment for remuneration or profit” under the applicable definition, former National Football League player Aaron R. Rouse sued the NFL Player Disability and Survivor Benefit Plan in a Virginia federal court on March 11 for retroactive and continuing benefits.

  • March 12, 2026

    Suit Involving Cousin’s Purported Disability Fraud Is Dismissed As Untimely

    DALLAS — Without substantive explanation, a Texas federal judge overruled objections and accepted a report and recommendation to dismiss as untimely a lawsuit involving fraud and bad faith claims in which the pro se plaintiff challenged a roughly two-decade-old termination of long-term disability (LTD) benefits and alleged that a cousin fraudulently used her identity to file a successful disability claim.

  • March 11, 2026

    4th Circuit Undoes Mandatory Class In ERISA Suit Over Passive Target-Date Funds

    RICHMOND, Va. — Reversing and vacating certification of a mandatory class in a case challenging an employer’s decision to offer passively managed BlackRock LifePath Index target date funds (TDFs) in its retirement plan, the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on March 10 said the Employee Retirement Income Security Act claims at issue are “individualized” monetary ones that “cannot be joined in a mandatory class” and the lower court should not have “postponed the necessary rigorous analysis of commonality.”

  • March 11, 2026

    ERISA Tobacco Surcharge Developments Include 2 More Dismissals

    As federal judges resolve dismissal motions in a wave of putative class Employee Retirement Income Security Act challenges to health plan tobacco surcharges, denials still predominate, but defendants won dismissal in two of the latest four rulings.

  • March 10, 2026

    Prohibited Transaction Claims Survive In ERISA Suit Over Prescription Costs

    NEW YORK — After two similar putative class actions filed under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act in other jurisdictions were dismissed for lack of standing, a New York federal judge on March 9 ruled that plaintiffs who sued JPMorgan Chase & Co. and related entities over purported mismanagement of a prescription drug program have standing but sufficiently stated only their prohibited transaction claims.

  • March 09, 2026

    ERISA Prescription Costs Suit Is Again Dismissed For Lack Of Standing

    MINNEAPOLIS — A Minnesota federal judge described alleged price comparisons as “staggering” but nevertheless ruled that the amended complaint in a putative Employee Retirement Income Security Act class action over purported mismanagement of prescription drug benefits did not cure the deficiencies that resulted in the original complaint being dismissed for lack of standing.

  • March 06, 2026

    Objectors To Settlement In Residential Treatment Case Lose Class Counsel Bid

    UTICA, N.Y. — Purported class members who are unhappy with the terms of a proposed $1,415,000 settlement unsuccessfully sought to have separate class counsel appointed for a “Wilderness Subclass” that a New York federal judge said doesn’t exist in the case concerning allegations that United Behavioral Health violated the Employee Retirement Income Security Act by issuing blanket denials for residential treatments for mental health and chemical dependency claims when it considered even a single aspect of the facility’s treatment experimental.

  • 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.