Mealey's ERISA
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February 26, 2025
Attorneys Get A Third Of $7.1M Settlement Of Class Action Over ESOP Deal
EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. — An Illinois federal judge on Feb. 25 granted final approval to a $7.1 million class settlement resolving a suit over 2012 and 2013 employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) deals, awarding the requested 33% attorney fees that total $2,366,666.67 in the case where the plaintiffs said the lodestar based on their counsel’s “reasonable hourly rate” was more than $6.8 million.
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February 25, 2025
Putative Class Members Seek Intervention, Stay In Deferred Compensation Row
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Arguing ongoing impairment of their right to arbitration, seven former Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Inc. financial advisers moved in North Carolina federal court to intervene and to stay all proceedings in a putative class action in a dispute that the plaintiff argues concerns deferred compensation.
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February 24, 2025
7 Suits Over Insurer’s Data Breach Remanded To Wisconsin State Court
MADISON, Wis. — A health insurance company did not establish that federal jurisdiction existed over seven putative class actions that it removed to Wisconsin federal court, a judge held, granting a motion to remand the suits over a 2024 data breach to state court, finding that exceptions to the Class Action Fairness Act (CAFA) defeated federal jurisdiction.
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February 24, 2025
U.S. Supreme Court Won’t Review 5th Circuit AD&D Benefits Ruling
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Feb. 24 denied a petition for review of a per curiam unpublished opinion in which a Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed denial of accidental death and dismemberment (AD&D) benefits.
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February 24, 2025
7th Circuit Upholds ‘Thorough’ Ruling Denying Systems Engineer LTD Benefits
CHICAGO — Affirming a determination that a systems engineer isn’t entitled to long-term disability (LTD) benefits because he didn’t “establish that he is prevented from performing one or more essential duties of his occupation,” a Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel said in a nonprecedential per curiam disposition that its “independent look at the record” showed “no error, legal or factual.”
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February 24, 2025
Default Judgment Entered Against Employer In Suit Over COBRA Notice
SAN DIEGO — Ruling in part that “failure to provide proper COBRA [Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act] notice and its misrepresentations to Plaintiff [was] the actual and proximate cause of Plaintiff’s injuries,” a California federal judge entered default judgment against an employer on negligence and negligent misrepresentation claims, awarding the plaintiff nearly $500,000 in compensatory damages plus interest and costs but denying attorney fees.
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February 21, 2025
Imprudence Claim Survives Dismissal In Suit Over ESOP’s Cash-Equivalent Strategy
PITTSBURGH — A Pennsylvania federal judge on Feb. 20 dismissed a prohibited transaction claim but ruled that an imprudence claim asserted under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act survives in a putative class action filed by former and current employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) participants who say that about 20% of the plan’s funds have been kept in cash equivalents — money market funds and short-term certificates of deposit — since at least 2009.
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February 21, 2025
2nd Circuit Upholds Pension Ruling For NBA Ref Terminated Over Vaccine Requirement
NEW YORK — Issuing a Feb. 20 summary order in favor of a former NBA Services Corp. (NSC) referee who was terminated for not being vaccinated against COVID-19, a Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed that the termination meant he qualified for a pension payment of nearly $3 million even though he has a separate pending discrimination lawsuit over the termination.
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February 21, 2025
2nd Circuit Issues Mixed Ruling, Again Remands ERISA Deferred Compensation Row
NEW YORK — Cross-appeals in a long-running Employee Retirement Income Security Act deferred compensation dispute resulted in a mixed ruling that a Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel issued as a summary order, remanding for further proceedings.
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February 18, 2025
At DOL’s Request, 5th Circuit Stays Appeals Concerning ERISA Fiduciary Rule
NEW ORLEANS — Noting that the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) motion to hold consolidated appeals in abeyance was unopposed, a Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals judge on Feb. 14 granted a 60-day stay in the challenges of July rulings that imposed a nationwide stay of the effective date of the DOL Retirement Security Rule that redefines and broadens who is an investment advice fiduciary under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.
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February 18, 2025
Texas Federal Judge: DOL’s ESG Investing Rule Still Survives Under Loper Bright
AMARILLO, Texas — A Texas federal judge on Feb. 14 again upheld a 2022 U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) investment rule concerning environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors, rejecting what he called a request by the plaintiff states, companies and individuals “to expand the scope of the Fifth Circuit's limited remand and interpret [Loper Bright Enters. v. Raimondo] to affect standards it does not affect.”
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February 13, 2025
6th Circuit Won’t Revisit 2-1 Revival Of ERISA Suit Challenging TDFs
CINCINNATI — The Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Feb. 12 briefly denied a petition for rehearing en banc that six amicus curiae entities supported in a combined brief; the 2-1 decision at issue revived an Employee Retirement Income Security Act suit over a retirement plan’s retention of the passively managed Northern Trust Focus Funds suite of target date funds (TDFs) and choice of share classes.
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February 12, 2025
Lab Asks Court To Reconsider Dismissal Of Some Of Its COVID Test Repayment Claims
NEWARK, N.J. — In a lawsuit seeking reimbursement from health insurers for COVID-19 testing, a medical testing laboratory moved a New Jersey federal court for reconsideration of its order dismissing the lab’s claims based on retroactive assignments of rights by beneficiaries of plans governed by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, distinguishing precedent the court cited and dismissing its breach of implied contract claims, arguing that it was for the jury to determine whether the insurer’s direct reimbursements early in the pandemic were sufficient to allege a course of conduct.
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February 12, 2025
DOL To 5th Circuit: Hold Appeals Concerning ERISA Fiduciary Rule In Abeyance
NEW ORLEANS — Citing “the recent change in administration,” the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) on Feb. 12 asked the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to hold in abeyance consolidated appeals challenging two July rulings that imposed a nationwide stay of the effective date of the DOL Retirement Security Rule that redefines and broadens who is an investment advice fiduciary under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.
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February 12, 2025
6th Circuit Affirms Former Exec’s Losses In ‘Top Hat’ Severance Benefits Row
CINCINNATI — Affirming that the executive severance plan at issue in the Employee Retirement Income Security Act suit “qualifies as a top-hat plan,” a Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel upheld discovery and judgment on the administrative record rulings against the appellant and found no error in the striking of his jury demand.
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February 11, 2025
Consent Order Worth More Than $20M Proposed In Suit Against Big TPA
MADISON, Wis. — The third-party administrator (TPA) of hundreds of self-funded employee welfare benefit plans would “pay or cause to be paid at least $20,250,000,” plus civil penalties, under a consent order and judgment proposed to resolve a suit challenging adverse benefit determinations regarding hospital emergency services claims and urinary drug screening claims, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) told a Wisconsin federal court.
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February 11, 2025
9th Circuit Lets Ruling That Plan Doesn’t Have To Cover Residential Stay Stand
SAN FRANCISCO — A self-funded health plan does not have to cover a nearly yearlong stay at a residential mental health provider under a ruling that a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel upheld in an unpublished memorandum disposition; the Employee Retirement Income Security Act dispute centered on the use of what are known as “InterQual criteria.”
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February 11, 2025
1st Circuit Affirms Multiemployer Pension Fund Win In Withdrawal Liability Row
BOSTON — In a two-page judgment, a First Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed a ruling for a multiemployer pension fund in a dispute concerning unpaid withdrawal liability, deeming “unpersuasive” the withdrawn employer’s contentions that it didn’t waive an exemption argument and that a demand letter constituted a violation of a bankruptcy stay.
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February 10, 2025
2nd Circuit Vacates Ruling Against Union In Benefits Row Involving Expired CBA
NEW YORK — Saying in part that language incorporated by reference in an expired collective bargaining agreement (CBA) “can be reasonably understood as guaranteeing benefits beyond the contract’s expiration or as constituting deferred compensation,” a Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel vacated and remanded a ruling that a dispute over Xerox Corp.’s termination of certain retiree health benefits was not arbitrable.
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February 07, 2025
3rd Circuit Affirms Retiree Released Claims In ERISA Pension Row
PHILADELPHIA — Agreeing with the trial court that the Employee Retirement Income Security Act claims that a retiree sought to revive were included in a release that she signed knowingly and voluntarily, a Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel issued a nonprecedential per curiam disposition on Feb. 6 affirming summary judgment against the retiree in a pension benefits dispute.
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February 07, 2025
HP Inc. Gets Amended ERISA Forfeiture Suit Tossed With Prejudice In Federal Court
SAN JOSE, Calif. — One of the first companies to face an Employee Retirement Income Security Act lawsuit for allegedly not putting forfeited nonvested matching retirement contributions toward administrative expenses got the amended complaint dismissed with prejudice; the California federal judge said in part that “the same categorical rule implicit in Plaintiff’s initial Complaint pervades the revised pleading” and “flies in the face of decades of ERISA practice.”
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February 07, 2025
10th Circuit Affirms Ruling For Worker In ERISA Severance Dispute
DENVER — In an unpublished order and judgment noting the “stark” change in responsibilities that occurred after a change of control, a 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed that a former employee was due severance benefits in an Employee Retirement Income Security Act case that involved disputes over a “good reason” clause and the correct standard of review.
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February 07, 2025
LTD Benefits Termination Was Not Arbitrary, Capricious, Magistrate Judge Says
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A disability insurer’s termination of a claimant’s long-term disability (LTD) benefits was de novo wrong; however, the termination was not arbitrary and capricious because the disability insurer had reasonable grounds to support its termination of benefits decision, a Florida federal magistrate judge said in recommending that the disability insurer’s motion for summary judgment be granted.
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February 06, 2025
Indiana Federal Judge Refuses To Reconsider Evidence Ruling In Disability Dispute
FORT WAYNE, Ind. — An Indiana federal judge on Feb. 5 denied a disability insurer’s motion for reconsideration, refusing to reconsider a decision granting a disability claimant’s motion to exclude evidence collected after the date on which a long-term disability (LTD) benefits claim was deemed exhausted based on the insurer’s failure to decide the claimant’s appeal within 45 days as required by regulations set forth by the U.S. Department of Labor.
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February 06, 2025
Disability Plan Administrator Failed To Conduct Full, Fair Review, Panel Says
RICHMOND, Va. — The Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals reversed a district court’s ruling in favor of a disability plan and said remand to the plan administrator is necessary because the plan administrator failed to consider evidence submitted by the disability claimant as part of his administrative appeal following the termination of his long-term disability (LTD) benefits.