Mealey's ERISA

  • February 04, 2025

    $5.9M Class Deal To Resolve Suit Against ESOP Trustee Wins Initial Approval

    CHICAGO — An Employee Retirement Income Security Act class action asserting claims against the former trustee of an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) would be resolved under a $5.9 million class settlement that an Illinois federal judge has preliminarily approved.

  • February 04, 2025

    Former Independent Trustee Loses Renewed Dismissal Bid In ESOP Dispute On Remand

    GREEN BAY, Wis. — On remand after partial revival of an Employee Retirement Income Security Act suit concerning an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) and alleged price inflation, a Wisconsin federal judge denied a former independent trustee’s motion to dismiss the two claims against it, which are based on the trustee’s approval of what turned out to be the penultimate stock evaluation before an ESOP stock purchase.

  • February 04, 2025

    Judge Certifies Classes, Denies Summary Judgment In ERISA Imprudence Row

    GALVESTON, Texas — Briefly adopting memorandum and recommendations issued in 2023, a Texas federal judge on Feb. 3 overruled all objections, denying motions for summary judgment and partial summary judgment and granting certification of two classes in an Employee Retirement Income Security Act dispute over alleged retirement plan mismanagement.

  • January 31, 2025

    Amid ERISA Bench Trial, Defendants Seek Partial Decertification Of Class

    BOSTON — More than a week into a bench trial in an Employee Retirement Income Security Act suit primarily challenging the selection and retention of proprietary funds, the defendants on Jan. 30 moved in Massachusetts federal court to decertify the mandatory class as to one claim, saying in part that the named plaintiffs’ expert agreed that that claim “is unique to” a fund that is no longer proprietary “and different from the other claims he opines on.”

  • January 31, 2025

    Amici To 2nd Circuit: Reverse ERISA Determination On Deferred Compensation Plans

    NEW YORK —  A handful of amici curiae organizations are urging the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to vacate or reverse a determination that the Employee Retirement Income Security Act governs the compensation incentive and equity incentive plans at issue in a suit over a Morgan Stanley deferred compensation program, with the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) arguing that the lower court’s “conclusions run counter to significant contrary case law and regulatory guidance and upend employers’ longstanding understanding of the rules applicable to incentive plans.”

  • January 30, 2025

    Lab Seeking COVID-19 Testing Repayment Adequately Pleads Derivative ERISA Standing

    NEWARK, N.J. — Concluding that a medical testing laboratory had obtained derivative standing under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act via assignments of rights by ERISA-governed plan beneficiaries to sue health insurers for reimbursement for COVID-19 testing, a New Jersey federal judge on Jan. 29 denied in part the insurers’ motion to dismiss, while dismissing state law claims and claims based on assignments of rights that were executed after the litigation began.

  • January 30, 2025

    Allstate Prevails In Suit Over 401(k)’s Use Of Certain TDFs, Advisory Services

    CHICAGO — Saying in part that without “relevant analysis and opinions,” an expert’s “report and testimony cannot create a genuine factual dispute,” an Illinois federal judge granted summary judgment against plaintiffs who challenged a retirement plan’s use of Northern Trust target date funds (TDFs) and advisory services under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.

  • January 29, 2025

    ERISA ‘Excessive Fee’ Settlements, Proposals Under $5M

    Class settlements below $5 million have been finalized or proposed in 17 “excessive fee” Employee Retirement Income Security Act cases between mid-October and late January.

  • January 29, 2025

    $4.5M Deal Gets Final OK In ERISA Lawsuit Over Proprietary Index Funds

    NEW YORK — A New York federal magistrate judge has granted final approval to a $4.5 million class settlement in an Employee Retirement Income Security Act case over the selection and retention of proprietary index fund products, awarding $1.5 million of that sum for attorney fees and a total of $45,000 for incentive awards.

  • January 28, 2025

    Lower Court Did Not Commit Reversible Error In Ruling For Disability Insurers

    ATLANTA — The 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed a district court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of two disability insurers, noting in a three-page unpublished opinion that the lower court did not commit reversible error in entering judgment for the insurers after determining that the doctrine of issue preclusion bars the disability claimant from arguing that he remains disabled under a group disability policy.

  • January 28, 2025

    Settlement With ‘Landmark’ Recovery In Mortality Table Row Wins Final Approval

    CHICAGO — An Illinois federal judge on Jan. 27 granted final approval to a class settlement including what retirees said is a “landmark recovery” of $10 million in the Employee Retirement Income Security Act suit over allegedly outdated mortality tables used to calculate joint and survivor annuity (JSA) benefits in two Citgo Petroleum Corp. pension plans; he also approved the separate $4.75 million agreement, of which $4,366,908.05 is for attorney fees, $308,091.95 is for expenses and $75,000 is for service awards.

  • January 27, 2025

    J&J Wins Dismissal Of Fiduciary Breach Claims In ERISA Drug Costs Lawsuit

    CAMDEN, N.J. — One of the two high-profile Employee Retirement Income Security Act fiduciary duty suits focused on health plans’ pharmacy benefits manager (PBM) and prescription drug benefits has been partly dismissed with leave to amend, with a New Jersey federal judge on Jan. 24 ruling that the plaintiff lacks standing to assert the key claims in her putative class case.

  • January 27, 2025

    $69M Settlement Gets Initial OK In ERISA Target Date Funds Challenge

    MINNEAPOLIS — A Minnesota federal judge on Jan. 24 preliminarily approved a $69 million proposal that the class representative said would be “the largest settlement in the history of investment performance cases in an [Employee Retirement Income Security Act] context.”

  • January 27, 2025

    Disability Claimant Failed To Meet Necessary Heightened Standard, Panel Says

    CINCINNATI — A district court did not err in dismissing a disability claimant’s suit because the claimant failed to meet a heightened standard that is necessary to prevail on an estoppel claim when a plan’s terms are unambiguous, the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said in affirming the lower court’s ruling.

  • January 24, 2025

    Any-Occupation Ruling Must Be Reversed, Disability Claimant Tells 11th Circuit

    ATLANTA — A district court’s ruling that a disability insurer’s termination of benefits after 11 years was not arbitrary and capricious must be reversed because the evidence shows that the claimant’s disability worsened and that the insurer’s handling of the medical evidence was unreasonable, a disability claimant tells the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in her appellant brief.

  • January 24, 2025

    Regulatory Freeze Hits ‘Adequate Consideration’ Proposed Regulation For ESOPs

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A regulatory freeze that President Donald J. Trumpinstituted as part of his first official acts has affected a long-awaited revised proposed regulation and a proposed class exemption in an Employee Retirement Income Security Act issue that has seen significant litigation — employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) transactions.

  • January 24, 2025

    Response Waived To U.S. High Court Petition On ERISA Benefits Denial Ruling

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The administrator of an accidental death and dismemberment (AD&D) insurance plan has waived its right to respond to a petition for U.S. Supreme Court review of a per curiam unpublished opinion upholding denial of benefits.

  • January 23, 2025

    7th Circuit Upholds Summary Judgment, Discovery Ruling In ‘Tragic’ ERISA Case

    CHICAGO — Affirming a summary judgment and discovery ruling for a multiemployer health plan in “a tragic case” over refusal to reimburse close to $200,000 in out-of-network medical care, a Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel said the discretion the plan gave its administrator and the “deferential standard of review” compelled the result.

  • January 22, 2025

    High Court Hears Argument On Stating ERISA Prohibited Transaction Claims

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Jan. 22 heard oral argument concerning what is necessary to state an Employee Retirement Income Security Act prohibited transaction claim involving a service provider, with respondents seeking affirmation of a ruling that makes exemptions claim elements that must be negated and petitioners and amicus curiae the U.S. government urging reversal on grounds including that the exemptions are affirmative defenses for which defendants bear the burden.

  • January 22, 2025

    Judgment In Favor Of Disability Insurer Should Be Reversed, Claimant Says

    ATLANTA — A district court erred in entering judgment in favor of a disability insurer because objective medical evidence supports a finding that a disability claimant’s medical conditions and limitations prevented her from performing the material duties of any occupation, the claimant says in an appellant brief filed in the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.

  • January 21, 2025

    Disability Claimant To 7th Circuit: Lower Court Erred In Finding Burden Not Met

    CHICAGO — A district court erred in finding that a disability claimant failed to meet her burden of proving by a preponderance of the evidence that she remained disabled from working in a sedentary occupation as a result of symptoms related to fibromyalgia because the lower court ignored relevant precedent in finding that the claimant was no longer disabled, the claimant says in an appellant brief filed in the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.

  • January 21, 2025

    Latest Parity Act Rules Are Focus Of Lawsuit Against DOL, Other Agencies

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The ERISA Industry Committee (ERIC) on Jan. 17 sued three U.S. agencies in a District of Columbia federal court over Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA or Parity Act) final rules released in September, which it argues upend “the regulatory and compliance framework that has evolved over decades pursuant to the limits established by Congress” and impose “entirely new, ambiguous requirements.”

  • January 21, 2025

    Settlement Of Just Over $1.4M Gets Initial OK In Suit Over Insurer’s Denials

    UTICA, N.Y. — A New York federal judge on Jan. 17 granted preliminary approval to a $1,415,000 settlement in a class action over allegations that United Behavioral Health violated the Employee Retirement Income Security Act by issuing blanket denials for residential treatments for mental health and chemical dependency claims when it considered even a single aspect of the facility’s treatment experimental.

  • January 17, 2025

    $4.95M Class Settlement Gets Preliminary OK In ERISA Tobacco Surcharge Suit

    SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — A Missouri federal judge on Jan. 16 granted preliminary approval to a $4.95 million class settlement proposed in a suit that was filed months before a recent wave of similar Employee Retirement Income Security Act challenges to health plans’ tobacco surcharges.

  • January 16, 2025

    DOL Issues Long-Awaited ‘Adequate Consideration’ Proposed Regulation For ESOPs

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) on Jan. 16 released a long-awaited revised proposed regulation and a proposed class exemption on an Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 issue that has seen significant litigation — employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) transactions.