-
January 27, 2026
RICHMOND, Va. — Resolving “two important questions” that both “concern what happens when a multiemployer pension plan submits a proof of claim for withdrawal liability in the bankruptcy of a contributing employer,” the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Jan. 26 affirmed summary judgment against an employer that withdrew from the multiemployer fund and its control group.
-
January 27, 2026
Aligning with the majority of rulings in the wave of putative Employee Retirement Income Security Act class suits challenging a common use of forfeited nonvested matching retirement contributions, federal judges have granted defendants’ dismissal motions in cases filed against RTX Corp., Amazon.com Services LLC, WakeMed Health & Hospitals, Meijer Inc., Alliance Coal LLC and Northrop Grumman Corp.
-
January 26, 2026
CINCINNATI — Concluding that the trial court’s ruling in favor of a health insurer was correct on a Parity Act claim but erroneous on an Employee Retirement Income Security Act claim for mental health benefits, the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals vacated summary judgment on the latter claim, which it ordered sent back to the insurer for reprocessing.
-
January 26, 2026
PASADENA, Calif. — Splitting 2-1 on how to review for abuse of discretion, the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals issued an unpublished memorandum disposition vacating and remanding judgment for a multiemployer health plan in an Employee Retirement Income Security Act case concerning facility fees.
-
January 23, 2026
ATLANTA — Concluding in an unpublished per curiam opinion that an insurer “had a reasonable basis” for finding that a surgeon dropped below the number of working hours required for “active employment” early in the COVID-19 pandemic, the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed summary judgment for the insurer that denied long-term disability (LTD) benefits on the basis that a tremor he consulted a doctor about over that time constituted an excluded preexisting condition.
-
January 23, 2026
MINNEAPOLIS — Concluding “that actuarial equivalence does not require reasonable underlying assumptions” and distinguishing five cases in which she said Ian Altman’s expert testimony concerning actuarial equivalence wasn’t excluded, a Minnesota federal judge excluded Altman’s testimony under Federal Rule of Evidence 702(c) and then repeatedly credited the opposing expert’s testimony in granting summary judgment for the defendants in the Employee Retirement Income Security Act suit concerning early retirement benefits.
-
January 23, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Weighing in again on a pension calculation class action that has repeatedly come before it after a permanent injunction issued in 2011, the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals issued an unpublished per curiam judgment affirming denial of a motion for postjudgment discovery and accounting.
-
January 22, 2026
Two more federal judges have ruled that some or all claims survive dismissal in putative class actions challenging surcharges that health plan administrators require tobacco or nicotine users to pay, and a motion to compel arbitration has been granted in another similar case.
-
January 22, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court has asked a terminated multiemployer pension plan to respond to a certiorari petition filed on behalf of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. (PBGC) in which the U.S. solicitor general argues that the decision at issue “will likely result in the payment of hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer funds to terminated pension plans that Congress intentionally excluded from” a special financial assistance (SFA) program and urges the high court to “grant review without awaiting the development of a circuit conflict.”
-
January 21, 2026
SAN JOSE, Calif. — On de novo review, a California federal judge concluded that a mechanical engineer who said she was disabled by a COVID vaccine injury due to symptoms including fatigue and brain fog is entitled to retroactive long-term disability (LTD) benefits under the plan’s initial “regular occupation” standard.
-
January 20, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In Jan. 20 oral argument before the U.S. Supreme Court on the parameters for calculating liability for withdrawing from a multiemployer pension plan, employers urged the high court to rule that there is a strict deadline for actuarial assumptions, and multiemployer plan trustees and the government as amicus curiae countered that the statutory text, standard actuarial practice and policy concerns all cut against that position.
-
January 20, 2026
ATLANTA — Without substantive explanation, the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals denied an unanswered petition for en banc rehearing concerning a split panel’s ruling that it was unreasonable for a long-term disability (LTD) insurer to interpret a preexisting conditions exclusion in a way that the majority said means that “treatment for a headache during the lookback period converts any disease or condition that causes headaches into a preexisting condition.”
-
January 16, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Jan. 16 granted a petition for a writ of certiorari by retirement plan participants who asked the justices to decide a question concerning fund underperformance claims and whether a “meaningful benchmark” must be alleged; the high court left pending a similar petition in Parker-Hannifin Corporation, et al. v. Michael D. Johnson, et al. that was scheduled to be considered at the same conference.
-
January 16, 2026
PHILADELPHIA — Saying he is “constrained by” the arbitrary and capricious standard of review, a Pennsylvania federal judge on Jan. 15 upheld denial of long-term disability (LTD) benefits for a river pilot who was diagnosed with long COVID.
-
January 16, 2026
CHICAGO — Finding on de novo review that a former Whole Foods worker who briefly obtained long-term disability (LTD) benefits because of back pain didn’t show “that he was under the ‘regular care of a physician’ as is required under the Plan,” an Illinois federal judge upheld termination of the benefits.
-
January 15, 2026
NEW YORK — Briefly upholding the trial court’s decision to use the arbitrary and capricious review standard in a long-term disability (LTD) benefits case, the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said in a Jan. 15 nonprecedential summary order that it affirmed the ruling for the reasons given in the lower court’s “detailed opinion and order.”
-
January 15, 2026
SAN FRANCISCO — Arguing that the trial court made errors on de novo review including “expansively applying a pre-existing condition exclusion to bar coverage for a disability caused by post-coverage traumatic injuries” and “disregarding uncontroverted medical evidence,” an appellant claimant filed a Jan. 14 brief urging the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to reverse an order that upheld denial of her claim for long-term disability (LTD) benefits.
-
January 15, 2026
NEW YORK — Saying a separate order would follow regarding the pending motion for attorney fees and costs in the long-running Employee Retirement Income Security Act lawsuit over residual annuities (RAs), a New York federal judge on Jan. 14 granted final approval to a $332 million class settlement the plaintiffs said will “yield the 1,177 Class members an average net settlement benefit of almost $200,000” even if the fees and costs are awarded as requested.
-
January 15, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Jan. 14 requested an employer’s response to a certiorari petition concerning a decision the petitioner says “encourages a cascade of litigation over the enforceability of arbitral awards”; the challenged 2-1 appeals court ruling affirmed vacatur of an award that resulted from pro se arbitration over severance pay and concerned an Employee Retirement Income Security Act discrimination claim that the majority concluded the claimant never raised.
-
January 14, 2026
NEW YORK — An Employee Retirement Income Security Act case squarely focused on using forfeited nonvested matching retirement funds to reduce company contributions would be resolved under a $9.6 million class settlement that won preliminary approval in a New York federal court on Jan. 13.
-
January 14, 2026
SEATTLE — Addressing an opposed request for attorney fees totaling $239,390 in a long-term disability (LTD) benefits case involving long COVID that was remanded to the administrator for full consideration because of a “substantial” procedural error, a Washington federal judge on Jan. 13 reduced the hours and the blended hourly rate, concluding that the appropriate fee award in the Employee Retirement Income Security Act case is $112,050.
-
January 14, 2026
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Upholding termination of long-term disability (LTD) benefits under a regular-occupation standard for an investment portfolio manager whom surveillance showed had played 20 rounds of golf in three months in late 2024 despite allegedly disabling back problems, a Virginia federal judge concluded that despite there being some support for his claim, the termination “was both the product of a deliberate, principled reasoning process, and supported by substantial evidence.”
-
January 13, 2026
NEW YORK — A New York federal judge has dismissed with prejudice a putative class pension risk transfer (PRT) case notable for focusing on transfers to nonparties Prudential Insurance Company of America (PICA) and RGA Reinsurance Company (RGA), concluding that the Verizon Communications Inc. retirees who filed the suit lacked standing and failed to state their claims.
-
January 13, 2026
PHILADELPHIA — Issuing a nonprecedential disposition affirming summary judgment against a class of retirement plan participants, the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals agreed with the lower court that the fund selection and monitoring process at issue were “adequate to satisfy the duty of prudence imposed on fiduciaries by” the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.
-
January 07, 2026
By Amanda S. Amert, Kimberly Jones and Craig C. Martin