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June 18, 2026
PHILADELPHIA — Concluding that neither claim was plausible under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on June 17 affirmed rulings against a widower who argued that his late wife’s employer wrongly denied his claim for basic accidental life insurance and optional accidental death and disability (AD&D) benefits and wrongly failed to provide plan documents.
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June 18, 2026
EL PASO, Texas — A Texas federal magistrate judge recommended granting a dismissal motion filed by Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) plan administrators in a woman’s suit asserting claims against the administrators, a physician, his practice and a hospital regarding the alleged negligent treatment she received during a joint replacement surgery after which she contracted COVID-19, finding that the woman cannot plead ERISA claims while arguing that ERISA is inapplicable.
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June 18, 2026
NORFOLK, Va. — Asking a Virginia federal court to order that the administrative record in his suit over total and permanent (T&P) disability benefits “be filed and maintained under seal,” a former National Football League player who is currently a Virginia state senator argues in part that disclosure “would invite public speculation and media scrutiny concerning Plaintiff's mental and physical health, cause harm to his professional reputation entirely unrelated to the legitimate issues before this Court, and constitute an egregious invasion of privacy that no amount of legal remedy could adequately redress.”
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June 17, 2026
NEW YORK — Pursuant to joint stipulations, a New York federal judge on June 16 certified mandatory classes as to the remaining claims in two related long-running Employee Retirement Income Security Act cases that generally allege imprudent management of New York University (NYU) retirement plans.
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June 16, 2026
CHICAGO — Asking the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to reverse a decision that upheld termination of his long-term disability (LTD) benefits under a “regular care of a physician” requirement, a former Whole Foods worker argues in his June 15 opening brief that the trial court was wrong both in concluding that the insurer cited the requirement during his administrative appeal and in ruling that under de novo review it could consider the requirement even if the insurer hadn’t cited it in the administrative appeal.
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June 12, 2026
NEW YORK — Retirees who sued Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. and related defendants over the use of allegedly outdated mortality tables in calculating qualified joint and survivor annuity (QJSA) benefits have won a New York federal court’s preliminary approval of a class settlement they say has a present value of $23 million.
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June 12, 2026
BOSTON — A plaintiff who unsuccessfully sought reinstatement of her long-term disability (LTD) benefits has filed a notice of appeal regarding a Massachusetts federal judge’s ruling that it was not arbitrary or capricious for the insurer to determine that she “could work pursuant to the Gainful Employment standard under the Plan, despite her illnesses and pain.”
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June 11, 2026
PASADENA, Calif. — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has scheduled oral argument for July 7 in the case of a former underwriter who says he was disabled by cognitive impairments and other symptoms he attributes to long COVID; issues in the appeal include assessing differing medical opinions and whether new reasons for denial of long-term disability (LTD) benefits were improperly raised in the lower court.
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June 11, 2026
ST. LOUIS — Affirming dismissal of an Employee Retirement Income Security Act claim that a pro se former football player asserted regarding NFL total and permanent (T&P) disability benefits, the Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals issued a one-paragraph unpublished opinion saying briefly that it found “no basis for” reversing the lower court’s conclusion that the claim was time-barred.
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June 10, 2026
HOUSTON — Upholding denial of long-term disability (LTD) benefits on de novo review, a Texas federal judge said that the plaintiff’s work history and approach to his illness and symptoms undercut his claims that he was unable to perform the material and substantial duties of his regular occupation and that the medical professionals who reviewed his claim “described ample bases for their” contrary conclusions.
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June 10, 2026
PASADENA, Calif. — In an unpublished memorandum disposition partly reversing and remanding judgment in favor of a health plan over refusal to preauthorize “a two-level artificial disc replacement surgery,” the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed that the administrator “did not operate under a conflict of interest,” then ruled that the administrator erred in denying the claim and the bench trial judge erred in finding no abuse of discretion on the administrator’s part.
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June 09, 2026
GREEN BAY, Wis. — Declining to disturb an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) fiduciary’s decisions regarding disbursement of almost $16 million in proceeds from two confidential settlements that were made without court action, a Wisconsin federal judge ruled that the remaining defendants in a long-running Employee Retirement Income Security Act suit “have not established that the court has the authority or duty to require” the “additional due process and fairness protections” requested regarding the settlement funds.
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June 09, 2026
NEWARK, N.J. — Denying a letter motion that cited consolidated appeals addressing “the threshold question of whether healthcare providers can enforce binding No Surprises Act (‘NSA’) awards in federal court,” a New Jersey federal magistrate judge ordered briefing to continue in a newly substituted lead case that could affect hundreds of similar lawsuits initially filed under the NSA in which providers are expected to assert Employee Retirement Income Security Act and unjust enrichment claims.
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June 08, 2026
OAKLAND, Calif. — Rejecting the defendants’ arguments regarding the impact of a nine-factor test the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals instituted concerning releases in Employee Retirement Income Security Act cases, a California federal judge on June 4 issued separate orders denying motions to decertify the class and reopen discovery and then on June 5 amended the latter order to clarify that a bench trial in the long-running case over severance benefits is scheduled to start July 9.
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June 08, 2026
DENVER — Saying that it lacks jurisdiction because the decision at issue remanded benefits determinations to a claims administrator and “was not final for the purposes of appellate jurisdiction,” the 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals dismissed an appeal concerning health plan coverage for treatment at residential behavioral health facilities.
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June 05, 2026
RICHMOND, Va. — Denying en banc rehearing in a case where it reversed and vacated certification of a mandatory class, the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on June 4 let its ruling stand in the Employee Retirement Income Security Act case challenging the employer’s decision to include passively managed BlackRock LifePath Index target date funds (TDFs) in its defined-contribution retirement plan.
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June 05, 2026
SEATTLE — A case that is part of a wave of putative class actions challenging a common use of forfeited nonvested matching retirement contributions would settle for an estimated $42,724,532 under a deal to which a Washington federal judge granted preliminary approval on June 4 after a hearing.
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June 05, 2026
BOSTON — Following a 12-day bench trial in a class action concerning the employee stock ownership plan (ESOP)of a family business that manufactures electrical equipment, a Massachusetts federal judge issued a mixed ruling and ordered supplemental briefing concerning “the exact calculation of damages” on bonuses, which was the issue on which the plaintiffs partially prevailed.
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June 05, 2026
DENVER — Resolving competing summary judgment motions in favor of a family physician who challenged termination of her long-term disability (LTD) benefits, a Colorado federal judge concluded that the insurer failed to refute the evidence that the physician was disabled under an “any-occupation” standard; the judge noted that the evidence included “a vocational report, a functional abilities evaluation, correspondence and records from her treatment providers, and neuropsychological assessments.”
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June 04, 2026
NEW YORK — In the wake of recent appellate rulings that revived three separate Employee Retirement Income Security Act cases similar to theirs, retirees who sued Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. and related defendants over the use of allegedly outdated mortality tables in calculating qualified joint and survivor annuity (QJSA) benefits moved in New York federal court for preliminary approval of a class settlement they say has a present value of $23 million.
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June 03, 2026
ST. LOUIS — Saying in part that “substantial evidence supported” the conclusion that home dialysis contributed to a woman’s death, the Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed summary judgment for an insurer that denied her husband’s resulting claim for accidental death and dismemberment (AD&D) benefits under an exclusion that pertained to treatment of an illness.
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June 02, 2026
CHICAGO — Resolving consolidated appeals in a withdrawal liability case where “tens of millions of dollars” are at stake by upholding a mixed ruling, the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed the lower court’s judgment “across the board,” concluding that a multiemployer pension plan had authority to expel a local bargaining unit but the plan’s counterclaim for declaratory judgment as to when the contribution obligation for that unit ended is not yet ripe because a mandatory exhaustion requirement applies and the issue must be arbitrated.
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June 02, 2026
BALTIMORE — A Maryland federal judge on June 1 gave preliminary approval to a class settlement that would resolve a suit former NFL players filed over the use of “race-based demographic adjustments” in “scoring neuropsychological tests” used to determine whether they receive disability and related benefits; the parties said the deal is designed to ensure that such “adjustments play no role in the Plans’ benefit determinations, whether prospectively or retroactively.”
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June 01, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on June 1 denied certiorari regarding a ruling that affirmed summary judgment for the U.S. government in a suit in which a certified class of retirees tried to get federal compensation for cuts made to their vested pension benefits; in the ruling at issue, an appellate court concluded that the government prevailed because the Multiemployer Pension Reform Act of 2014 (MPRA) “was not a physical taking and plaintiffs did not prove it was a regulatory taking.”
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June 01, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on June 1 denied a certiorari request concerning a ruling that health insurance plan petitioners and trade association amici curiae contended wrongly broadened equitable estoppel under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act; the respondents — Texas emergency medicine physician groups — had countered that the petition is “based on a description of the case that bears no resemblance to reality” and needlessly seeks “to resolve a split in authority that does not exist.”