Mealey's ERISA
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April 24, 2025
5th Circuit Upholds Ruling Against Decedent’s Sisters In ERISA Life Insurance Row
NEW ORLEANS — Affirming judgment against a decedent’s sisters in a dispute over life insurance proceeds, the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in an unpublished seven-page opinion rejected the sisters’ arguments that the appellees lack standing under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act and that the decedent “did not substantially comply with the change-of-beneficiary requirements.”
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April 24, 2025
Federal Jury Awards Class Nearly $39M In ERISA Fees Challenge
NEW YORK — A rare Employee Retirement Income Security Act jury trial resulted in a unanimous April 23 verdict awarding $38,760,232 in damages to a class of retirement plan participants who challenged the record-keeping and administration fees of a multiple employer retirement plan (MEP), according to a text-only entry on the New York federal court docket.
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April 24, 2025
Defendants Prevail In Suit Over STD, LTD Benefits; Notice Ruled Insufficient
HARRISONBURG, Va. — Resolving three motions in favor of the defendants, a Virginia federal judge upheld denial of short-term disability (STD) benefits on the basis that the plan administrator “engaged in principled and reasoned decision-making while considering sufficient evidence,” also ruling that the claimant didn’t exhaust administrative remedies as to long-term disability (LTD) benefits and is now time-barred from doing so.
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April 23, 2025
Settlement Of Over $20.5M Proposed In Retiree Medical Benefits Termination Row
SAN FRANCISCO — A putative Employee Retirement Income Security Act class action over termination of retiree medical benefits would be resolved for $20,545,000 under a settlement that the plaintiffs have asked a California federal court to grant preliminary approval.
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April 23, 2025
LTD Claimant Prevails In Interpretation Dispute Over What ‘Insured Earnings’ Means
NEW YORK — Following a bench trial on the stipulated record in a dispute over termination of long-term disability (LTD) benefits, a New York federal judge ruled for the claimant, saying in part on de novo review that “the term ‘insured earnings,’ as used in the Plan” does include earnings reported on a K-1 tax form.
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April 22, 2025
DOL Tells 5th Circuit It Wants To Reconsider Biden-Era ESG Rule
NEW ORLEANS — Noting that appellant states, companies and individuals oppose the request, the U.S. Department of Labor and its Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer (together, the DOL) on April 21 asked the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to hold an appeal in abeyance while the DOL reconsiders the challenged 2022 investment rule concerning environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors.
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April 22, 2025
U.S. High Court Requests Respondents’ Input On ERISA Meaningful Benchmark Issue
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on April 21 asked respondents to weigh in on a petition for review of the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ 2-1 revival of a putative class action challenging retention of a passively managed Northern Trust Focus Funds suite of target date funds (TDFs) and choice of share classes.
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April 21, 2025
U.S. High Court’s Other ERISA Prohibited Transaction Petition Is Redistributed
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Days after the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling concerning the Employee Retirement Income Security Act pleading standard for prohibited transaction claims, a separate review petition concerning a different prohibited transaction dispute on April 21 was distributed for conference for a second time.
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April 21, 2025
President Calls For Proposed ‘Transparency’ Regs On PBM Fees In Executive Order
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) are one focus of an executive order titled “Lowering Drug Prices by Once Again Putting Americans First,” with President Donald J. Trump calling for the secretary of Labor to propose regulations under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act “to improve employer health plan fiduciary transparency into the direct and indirect compensation received by pharmacy benefit managers.”
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April 21, 2025
U.S. Supreme Court Seeks Government Input On ERISA Burden-Shifting Question
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In its April 21 order list, the U.S. Supreme Court invited the U.S. solicitor general to express the government’s views regarding a certiorari petition that asks whether “burden-shifting applies to the element of causation under” part of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.
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April 18, 2025
Tobacco Surcharge Suit That Is Part Of Recent Wave Survives Dismissal
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Saying in part that there is precedent under which the named plaintiffs “have adequately alleged that Defendant’s tobacco surcharge violated [the Employee Retirement Income Security Act] because it did not offer a retroactive reimbursement,” a Missouri federal judge declined to dismiss a putative class action that is part of a recent wave of similar suits.
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April 17, 2025
$5M Deal Gets Final OK, With Trimmed Awards, In ERISA Fees, Funds Case
PHILADELPHIA — A $5 million class settlement including an agreement to conduct requests for proposals (RFPs) has been granted final approval in an Employee Retirement Income Security Act suit challenging a multiemployer retirement plan’s fund choices, share classes and record-keeping, but a Pennsylvania federal judge awarded reduced incentive awards and attorney fees of $1,000 and $950,000, respectively, instead of the $8,000 and $1,666,500 requested.
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April 17, 2025
Defendant Seeks Immediate Appeal After PRT Challenge Survives Dismissal
GREENBELT, Md. — Requesting that denial of its dismissal motion be certified for immediate interlocutory appeal in a putative class Employee Retirement Income Security Act lawsuit challenging pension risk transfers (PRTs), Lockheed Martin Corp. told a Maryland federal court that a sister court’s contradictory ruling highlights the need for review by the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.
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April 17, 2025
U.S. High Court Reverses 2nd Circuit On ERISA Prohibited Transaction Claims
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Issuing a unanimous reversal and accompanying concurrence in a dispute concerning what is necessary to state an Employee Retirement Income Security Act prohibited transaction claim involving a service provider, the U.S. Supreme Court on April 17 ruled that a certain exemption is not a claim element that a plaintiff must negate but rather an affirmative defense for which the burden falls on the defendant.
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April 16, 2025
Federal Judge Finds ERISA Governs Group Disability Plan, Dismisses State Law Claims
BOSTON — A Massachusetts federal judge granted an insurer’s motion for summary judgment, ruling that an employee’s long-term disability (LTD) insurance plan administered by her religious institute-affiliated employer is governed by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act and not exempt as a church plan, resulting in the dismissal of the coordinator’s state law claims without prejudice.
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April 15, 2025
NFL Plan To 5th Circuit: Let Fee Award Appeal Proceed In Disability Benefits Row
NEW ORLEANS — Telling the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that the issues raised are not “grounds for dismissal” and that it “could not have forfeited an appeal of the new fee award and opinion before they existed, when the case was in the opposite posture,” the Bert Bell/Pete Rozelle NFL Player Retirement Plan on April 14 asked to be allowed to proceed with its appeal of an award of more than $1.25 million in attorney fees and costs to a former National Football League player.
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April 15, 2025
Engineer To 4th Circuit: Affirm Ruling In Long COVID Disability Benefits Case
RICHMOND, Va. — Contending in part that de novo review was correctly applied because of an “inexcusable failure to issue a timely decision,” a long-term disability (LTD) benefits claimant urged the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to affirm a judgment that she is owed past-due benefits because long COVID symptoms have disabled her from working as an engineer.
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March 20, 2025
Insurer To 4th Circuit: Overturn Ruling In Long COVID Disability Benefits Case
RICHMOND, Va. — Arguing that the lower court improperly applied de novo review and wrongly concluded that the claimant showed that she is disabled from working as an engineer because of long COVID symptoms, an insurer urged the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to reverse a judgment that the claimant is owed past-due long-term disability (LTD) benefits.
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April 15, 2025
Judge Upholds LTD Benefits Termination For Failure To Show No ‘Working’
WORCESTER, Mass. — Upholding termination of long-term disability (LTD) benefits on de novo review, a Massachusetts federal judge ruled that an independent financial adviser didn’t meet his burden of showing that he had not been “working,” with that term defined as “engaging in activity regularly for wages or salary.”
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April 15, 2025
7th Circuit Denies Petition Over Refusal To Transfer ERISA Mortality Table Row
CHICAGO — Citing a 1989 U.S. Supreme Court decision, the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals denied a mandamus petition concerning denial of a motion to transfer a putative class Employee Retirement Income Security Act case challenging pension calculations that used a mortality table from 1984.
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April 15, 2025
Effective Vindication Rule Is Focus Of ERISA Imprudence Appeal In 9th Circuit
SAN FRANCISCO — In separate briefs, a former 401(k) participant and amicus curiae organization Public Justice urge the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to affirm that a nonseverable arbitration provision is void because it contains a class, collective and representative action waiver that they say prevents effective vindication of plan participants’ substantive right under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.
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April 14, 2025
Judge: LTD Administrator Didn’t Abuse Its Discretion In Long COVID Case
MADISON, Wis. — Upholding denial of long-term disability (LTD) benefits for a claimant who was diagnosed with long COVID, a Wisconsin federal judge said in part that “even when symptoms are subjective, functional limitations caused by those symptoms can be objectively measured, so it is not arbitrary and capricious to ask for objective evidence.”
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April 11, 2025
Appellant In Withdrawal Liability Row Flags New Ruling For 11th Circuit
ATLANTA — More than six months after oral argument in an Employee Retirement Income Security Act multiemployer pension fund withdrawal liability dispute where an employer asks the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals “to split from” a sister circuit’s ruling, that employer filed a notice of supplemental authority regarding a decision that disagreed with the challenged ruling’s reasoning.
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April 11, 2025
Judge Orders LTD Benefits Retroactively Reinstated In Basis Switch Dispute
OAKLAND, Calif. — Rejecting the defendants’ request that the dispute instead be remanded to the insurer, a California federal judge who previously ruled that termination of a long-term disability (LTD) claimant’s benefits was an abuse of discretion has now directed that those benefits be retroactively reinstated.
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April 10, 2025
Summary Judgment, Supplemental Complaint Denied In Row Over Health Plans’ Status
FORT WORTH, Texas — Saying that “the facts in the current record are insufficient,” a Texas federal judge denied summary judgment in a dispute over whether the Employee Retirement Income Security Act governs a health insurance plan for limited partnerships; the judge also declined to let the plaintiffs file a supplemental complaint that he concluded was outside the scope of remand by the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.