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Mealey's ERISA

  • 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.

  • October 28, 2025

    New 9th Circuit Test For ERISA Releases Is Focus Of High Court Petition

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The named plaintiffs in a long-running class action concerning severance benefits on Oct. 27 waived their right to respond to a U.S. Supreme Court petition in which an employer and related entities seek review of a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruling that they argue “creates a roadmap for plaintiffs to evade” releases of Employee Retirement Income Security Act claims.

  • October 28, 2025

    5th Circuit Slightly Revises Opinion In Health Care Claims Assignment Dispute

    NEW ORLEANS — Granting what it construed as a petition for panel rehearing in a reimbursement dispute over out-of-network care, the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals issued a slightly revised substituted opinion with the same result as the original — it mostly vacated and remanded summary judgment against health insurance plans.

  • October 28, 2025

    $4.7M Class Deal Reported In Tobacco Surcharge Case That Survived Dismissal

    RICHMOND, Va. — A putative class action that is part of a recent wave of similar Employee Retirement Income Security Act suits over health plan tobacco surcharges would be resolved under a $4.7 million settlement agreement that the plaintiffs told a Virginia federal court the parties have signed.

  • October 27, 2025

    5th Circuit Argument Set In Appeal Of Fees Award To NFL Disability Claimant

    NEW ORLEANS — The Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has scheduled Dec. 3 oral argument in an Employee Retirement Income Security Act appeal where the Bert Bell/Pete Rozelle NFL Player Retirement Plan challenges an award of more than $1.25 million in attorney fees and costs to a former National Football League player who sought a higher level of disability benefits than he had been awarded, and the former player counters that the issue “was forfeited long ago.”

  • October 21, 2025

    Parties, Amici File High Court Merits Briefs In Withdrawal Liability Case

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a merits brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to affirm the withdrawal liability decision at issue, multiemployer pension plan trusteesargue that the “timing rule” of Nat'l Ret. Fund v. Metz Culinary Mgmt. should be rejected as contrary to the text of the Multiemployer Pension Plan Amendments Act (MPPAA), “longstanding actuarial practice, and common sense.”

  • October 17, 2025

    Change Of Plans In Former Twitter Workers’ Severance Case Sparks Intervention Bid

    SAN FRANCISCO — On Oct. 16 — just under two months after the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals agreed to postpone oral argument based on the parties’ report of an unspecified “imminent class-wide settlement agreement” in former Twitter Inc. employees’ effort to revive their putative class action for more than $500 million in severance benefits — two former employees moved to intervene as of right on the grounds that the two named plaintiffs now intend only “to proceed with individual claims on an individual basis.”

  • October 16, 2025

    On Remand, ERISA Prohibited Transaction Case Is Sent Back To District Court

    NEW YORK — Nearly half a year after the U.S. Supreme Court reversed the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on the question of what is necessary to state an Employee Retirement Income Security Act prohibited transaction claim involving a service provider, the appeals court on Oct. 15 issued two one-paragraph orders — one recalling the mandate and reinstating the case, then one remanding the case to a New York federal court.

  • October 16, 2025

    Majority Of 11th Circuit Panel Criticizes Exhaustion Precedent But Applies It

    ATLANTA — After applying a 40-year-old circuit precedent in a unanimous Oct. 15 panel ruling affirming dismissal of an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) valuation case but remanding for clarification on “whether prejudice attaches,” two panel members suggested that the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals convene en banc “to consider overruling” that precedent, which they said “imposed a judicially-created and atextual administrative exhaustion requirement for fiduciary-breach and statutory claims under” the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.

  • October 16, 2025

    Judge Finalizes $50,000 Sanction For Disclosures To U.S. Labor Department

    OAKLAND, Calif. — Noting that the parties in a recently certified class action over alleged underpayment for out-of-network behavioral health treatment decided not to request oral argument after considering her tentative sanctions ruling, a California federal judge on Oct. 15 finalized an order for a law firm representing the plaintiffs to pay $50,000 for disclosures to the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) that she found constituted “a knowing and intentional breach of” a stipulated protective order.

  • October 16, 2025

    3rd Circuit Rules Against Plan Participant Who Challenged Pension Denial

    PHILADELPHIA — Rejecting the appellant’s arguments on each issue it reached in the Employee Retirement Income Security Act case and saying in part that a claim for “‘surcharge’ was artful pleading intended to reframe her . . . request for retirement benefits as equitable,” the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed rulings for merged pension plans and their administrators in a nonprecedential disposition.

  • October 15, 2025

    Judge Orders Private Equity Fund To Pay Almost $3M In Withdrawal Liability Suit

    KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Noting his previous finding that a private equity fund counted as an employer under the withdrawal liability provision of the Multiemployer Pension Plan Amendments Act (MPPAA), a Missouri federal judge ordered the fund to pay nearly $3 million, including interest, liquidated damages and attorney fees.

  • October 14, 2025

    7th Circuit Rejects ‘Safe Harbor’ Interpretation In Withdrawal Liability Case

    CHICAGO — Affirming a ruling against an employer in a withdrawal liability dispute involving the “payment schedule” and asset sale “safe harbor” provisions of the Multiemployer Pension Plan Amendments Act (MPPAA), the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said in part that Congress “did not choose to prevent ‘double recovery’ over other policy outcomes.”

  • October 13, 2025

    $332M Deal To End Residual Annuities Class Action Wins Preliminary Approval

    NEW YORK — A long-running Employee Retirement Income Security Act lawsuit over residual annuities would be resolved under a proposed $332 million settlement that a New York federal judge has granted preliminary approval.

  • October 10, 2025

    After Fees Award, LTD Insurer Drops Appeal Of Ruling That Doctor Is Due Benefits

    PHILADELPHIA — Weeks after the plaintiff in a long-term disability (LTD) benefits case was awarded reduced attorney fees of $117,297.50 by the trial court, the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals dismissed the insurer’s appeal pursuant to a joint stipulation.

  • October 09, 2025

    Judge Upholds Ending Of LTD Benefits, Rules That Emails Were Privileged

    MILWAUKEE — Concluding in part that the plaintiff didn’t show that the fiduciary exception to attorney-client privilege applies, a Wisconsin federal judge upheld termination of long-term disability (LTD) benefits in a case that involved disputes regarding the duties of the claimant’s “regular occupation” as a customer service representative who worked remotely.

  • October 09, 2025

    Pa. Federal Magistrate Recommends Dismissing Pension Risk Transfer Case

    PITTSBURGH — Agreeing with two of the five recent rulings in similar Employee Retirement Income Security Act putative class actions and citing Thole v. U.S. Bank N.A., a Pennsylvania federal magistrate judge recommended dismissing a pension risk transfer (PRT) challenge for lack of standing on the grounds that none of their three claimed injuries pass muster.

  • October 08, 2025

    Judge Tentatively Orders Sanctions For Disclosures To U.S. Labor Department

    OAKLAND, Calif. — Days after granting the plaintiffs’ third motion for class certification in an Employee Retirement Income Security Act suit over alleged underpayment for out-of-network behavioral health treatment, a California federal judge issued a tentative order on Oct. 7 for a law firm representing the plaintiffs to pay $50,000 for disclosures to the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) that she found constituted “a knowing and intentional breach of” a stipulated protective order in the case.

  • October 08, 2025

    New York Federal Judge Upholds Denial Of Attorney’s Claim For LTD Benefits

    NEW YORK — Saying that the determination at issue was “based on the objective evidence of doctors and psychologists,” a New York federal judge upheld denial of long-term disability (LTD) benefits for a corporate finance attorney who claimed that she became unable to do her job after her vehicle was rear-ended at a traffic light.