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Mealey's ERISA

  • July 08, 2025

    Judge Upholds Denial Of ‘Any Occupation’ LTD Benefits On De Novo Review

    MINNEAPOLIS — Upholding denial of long-term disability (LTD) benefits under an “any gainful occupation” standard on de novo review, a Minnesota federal judge said in part that the denial “was in lockstep with” restrictions on the claimant at the time and that a treating physician’s efforts to retroactively “walk back” those restrictions “do not change things.”

  • July 08, 2025

    Parties Outline Discovery Positions For Phase II Of ESOP Lawsuit

    PHOENIX — Litigation continues in an Employee Retirement Income Security Act suit over a $105 million employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) deal after a bench trial, with a joint filing in Arizona federal court where the parties dispute whether a recreational vehicle company should participate in “Phase II” discovery.

  • July 08, 2025

    Judge Says LTD Plan Must Take Another Look At Denial After Deadline Snafu

    SEATTLE — Ruling that equitable estoppel bars an untimeliness argument against a long-term disability (LTD) claimant who was given an incorrect administrative appeal deadline, a federal judge in Washington concluded that the correct remedy is remand “to the LTD plan administrator for review based on the full record, including the now-available post-denial medical information and literature involving long COVID.”

  • July 07, 2025

    Applying Recent High Court Decision, Judge Grants Limited TRO For Iowa PBM Law

    DES MOINES, Iowa — Noting “the Supreme Court’s recent narrowing of district courts’ ability to impose injunctive relief beyond that which is necessary to afford relief to named parties,” an Iowa federal judge imposed an ex parte temporary restraining order (TRO) barring enforcement of a new Iowa pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) law as to the plaintiffs and the members of one of those plaintiffs; the judge concluded that the plaintiffs sufficiently showed that the provisions “are unenforceable as preempted by [the Employee Retirement Income Security Act] and violative of the First Amendment.”

  • July 07, 2025

    $48.5M Deal Gets Initial OK In ERISA Fees Suit After Federal Jury Verdict

    NEW YORK — A New York federal judge has preliminarily approved a settlement that would include a $48.5 million payment and other relief in a suit over the record-keeping and administration fees of a multiple employer retirement plan (MEP); in the granted motion, the class of retirement plan participants said the deal would be nearly $10 million higher than the verdict a jury issued in their favor.

  • July 03, 2025

    U.S. High Court Amends Granted Question In ERISA Withdrawal Liability Row

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on July 3 amended a limited question granted June 30 in an appeal concerning a Multiemployer Pension Plan Amendments Act (MPPAA) withdrawal liability decision to match the proposed reformulated question presented by the federal government in an amicus curiae brief urging the high court to grant the petition.

  • July 02, 2025

    $48.5M Deal Is Proposed In ERISA Fees Suit After Federal Jury Verdict

    NEW YORK — Saying the total would be nearly $10 million higher than the verdict a jury issued in their favor, a class of retirement plan participants who challenged the record-keeping and administration fees of a multiple employer retirement plan (MEP) on July 2 asked a New York federal court for preliminary approval of a settlement that would include a $48.5 million payment and other relief.

  • July 02, 2025

    Some Forfeiture, Tobacco Surcharge Claims Survive Dismissal In ERISA Suit

    URBANA, Ill. — Ruling on a dismissal motion in a putative class action involving two recent hot topics in Employee Retirement Income Security Act litigation, an Illinois federal judge concluded that key claims regarding the use of forfeited nonvested retirement plan contributions survive but only one claim regarding a health plan’s so-called tobacco surcharge does.

  • July 01, 2025

    Connecticut Federal Judge Upholds LTD Termination Under ‘Any Occupation’ Standard

    NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Closing a lawsuit filed by a shop fabricator with rheumatoid arthritis and granting judgment in favor of a long-term disability (LTD) insurer, a Connecticut federal judge said that “although this may be a case where a contrary determination would also be supported by substantial evidence,” overall “there was substantial evidence to support [the insurer’s] determination that Plaintiff was not disabled under the ‘Any Occupation’ definition.”

  • July 01, 2025

    Judge Rules For Claimant In LTD Row Involving Own-Occupation Duties

    CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — Ruling on de novo review for a long-term disability (LTD) claimant who has neck and back pain, a Tennessee federal judge ordered retroactive reinstatement of her benefits in the case, resolving issues including what the duties of her regular occupation as a hospital chief clinical officer (CCO) are.

  • June 30, 2025

    Through Criticism, Defendants Win ERISA Proprietary Funds Row After Bench Trial

    BOSTON — A Massachusetts federal judge who conducted a 10-day bench trial found in favor of defendants in the Employee Retirement Income Security Act suit challenging the selection and retention of proprietary funds, saying in part that the class “cannot tie any specific decision to the Committee’s process failures, with one exception” — and failed to show that the exception caused any loss.

  • June 30, 2025

    High Court Seeks Input On ERISA Ruling Concerning Meaningful Benchmarks

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court in a June 30 orders list invited the U.S. solicitor general to provide the federal government’s perspective on a petition to review a Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals 2-1 revival of a putative class action over a passively managed Northern Trust Focus Funds suite of target date funds (TDFs); the decision concerns the role benchmarks play in pleading Employee Retirement Income Security Act claims.

  • June 30, 2025

    U.S. High Court Agrees To Tackle Withdrawal Liability Timing Assumptions Row

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — In an order list, the U.S. Supreme Court on June 30 granted a petition for review of a Multiemployer Pension Plan Amendments Act (MPPAA) withdrawal liability decision that the federal government filed an amicus curiae brief urging it to grant — but did not reformulate the question presented as the government suggested.

  • June 30, 2025

    U.S. High Court Won’t Review Ruling That ERISA Partly Preempts Oklahoma PBM Law

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — As the federal government urged in a requested amicus curiae brief, the U.S. Supreme Court in a June 30 order list declined to review a ruling that the Employee Retirement Income Security Act and Medicare Part D partially preempt an Oklahoma pharmaceutical benefit manager (PBM) law.

  • June 27, 2025

    Split U.S. High Court: Universal Injunctions ‘Likely Exceed’ Courts’ Authority

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Nationwide or universal injunctions “likely exceed the equitable authority that Congress has granted to federal courts,” a majority of the U.S. Supreme Court ruled June 27, partially staying nationwide injunctions issued in three cases challenging President Donald J. Trump’s Jan. 20 birthright citizenship executive order (EO),

  • June 25, 2025

    In ‘Close Call’ Case, Judge Rules For LTD Claimant In Any-Occupation Dispute

    SACRAMENTO, Calif. — In a decision he described as “a very close call,” a California federal judge ruled on de novo review that a claimant was disabled from any occupation under the terms of a long-term disability (LTD) plan; among other things, the judge resolved opposed requests for judicial notice and explained his findings that the opinions of several doctors should be given little to no weight but the claimant’s “reports of pain are entitled to some weight.”

  • June 25, 2025

    Judge Issues Final Approval Order For $69M Settlement Of Target Date Funds Case

    MINNEAPOLIS — A Minnesota federal judge on June 24 entered final approval and awards orders in a case concluded by a $69 million deal that the class representative called “the largest-ever ERISA settlement alleging breach of fiduciary duty for failure to remove underperforming investment options.”

  • June 24, 2025

    Declaration Is Struck, For Now, In Case Challenging Pension Risk Transfers

    NEW YORK — Largely granting an unopposed motion, a New York federal judge struck a declaration that retirees who filed a putative class action challenging pension risk transfers (PRTs) to Prudential Insurance Company of America (PICA) and RGA Reinsurance Co. (RGA) attached to and referenced in their amended complaint but denied a request to order alterations to the operative complaint.

  • June 24, 2025

    Arkansas Moves To Consolidate Cases Over Law Banning PBMs From Owning Pharmacies

    LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Arkansas moved to consolidate four cases that challenge the constitutionality of a recently signed law that bans pharmacy benefits managers (PBMs) from owning a pharmacy business in the state, contending that the cases share common questions of law and name the same defendants.

  • June 24, 2025

    In Mixed Ruling, 9th Circuit Approves Denial Of Coverage For Wilderness Program

    SAN FRANCISCO — In an unpublished June 23 memorandum disposition issuing a mixed ruling in a mental health and substance use coverage dispute, the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said that coverage for a wilderness program was properly denied; that coverage for residential treatment was not properly denied but the correct remedy is reprocessing because factual disputes remain; and that an award of nearly $50,000 for attorney fees and costs can’t stand because it was based on determinations that the appellate court reversed.

  • June 23, 2025

    Citing Delay, Premiums, 5th Circuit Rules For Life Insurance Beneficiary

    NEW ORLEANS — The Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on June 20 granted judgment for the beneficiary in a life insurance dispute involving a policy that the issuer terminated months after it said it temporarily changed its cancellation practices because of COVID-19; the dispute concerned whether the Employee Retirement Income Security Act applies and whether a small business owner had employees, and the panel concluded that the answer to both questions is yes.

  • June 23, 2025

    High Court Won’t Review Discovery Ruling In ERISA Health Benefit Denial Dispute

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court in its June 23 order list denied a petition to review an Employee Retirement Income Security Act discovery ruling in favor of a multiemployer health plan; the petitioner had argued that the “decision exacerbates both the ongoing split between Circuits as to determining what a plan administrator must do in order to satisfy its fiduciary obligation to perform a full and fair review, as well as the inconsistent factors that courts employ in order to determine whether discovery should be permitted,” and the plan countered that the decision shows only “the routine exercise of judicial discretion in applying the same rule to differing facts.”

  • June 23, 2025

    U.S. High Court Won’t Tackle Bankruptcy Dispute Involving Retirement Contributions

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — In its June 23 orders list, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review a ruling where a split Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel concluded “that voluntary retirement contributions do not constitute disposable income” in Chapter 13 bankruptcies.

  • June 23, 2025

    9th Circuit Orders Briefs On Skrmetti In Appeal Of Ruling That TPA Discriminated

    PASADENA, Calif. — The same day the U.S. Supreme Court issued its ruling in United States v. Skrmetti, the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ordered supplemental briefing in an appeal where a third-party administrator (TPA) seeks reversal of a ruling that it violated the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA)’s discrimination provision by administering exclusions of gender-affirming care; the parties are to address “how, if at all, this case is affected” by Skrmetti.

  • June 23, 2025

    After Claims Of Info Sharing For Class Actions, OIG To Look At DOL Practices

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Plans have been revealed for an Office of Inspector General (OIG) audit of “how the U.S. Department of Labor [DOL] has shared investigative information with non-governmental entities involved in class action litigation and the extent of any related controls.”