Mealey's ERISA
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November 06, 2024
9th Circuit Denies Rehearing After Partly Reviving Pension Benefits Class Action
PASADENA, Calif. — After partly reviving an Employee Retirement Income Security Act pension benefits class action after a bench trial in an unpublished memorandum disposition, the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals denied a petition for panel or en banc rehearing that was supported by an amicus curiae brief.
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November 06, 2024
Jury Awards Cigna $7.25M In Suit Over Fraudulent Billing For Drug Testing
NEW HAVEN, Conn. — A Connecticut federal court jury has awarded Cigna Health and Life Insurance Co. $7,256,100.60 in damages in a suit alleging that Florida drug testing labs were unjustly enriched by submitting to Cigna claims for reimbursement for medically unnecessary urine drug testing, resulting in purported overpayments to the labs of more than $20 million.
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November 05, 2024
2nd Circuit Upholds ERISA Denial Of Benefits, Documents Lawsuit
NEW YORK — In a summary order agreeing with the trial court’s ruling that a certain Employee Retirement Income Security Act provision does not cover the appellant’s personnel file and that a benefits claim was untimely, a Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel upheld dismissal of a former employee’s suit seeking severance and pension benefits.
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November 05, 2024
After Bench Trial Loss, Class Takes ERISA Suit Over TDFs To 9th Circuit
LOS ANGELES — After being granted only a slight amendment of the findings issued after a bench trial, retirement plan participants who filed an Employee Retirement Income Security Act class action over proprietary target date funds (TDFs) and were taxed nearly $94,000 in costs are challenging the judgment against them and the trial court’s latest order in the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.
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November 05, 2024
9th Circuit Sets January Argument In Appeal Of Ruling That TPA Discriminated
PASADENA, Calif. — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has set Jan. 17 oral argument in an appeal where a third-party administrator (TPA) seeks reversal of a ruling that it violated the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA)’s discrimination provision by administering exclusions of gender-affirming care.
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November 05, 2024
U.S. High Court Again Lets An ERISA Effective Vindication Ruling Stand
WASHINGTON, D.C. — As it did with several previous requests for review of decisions that applied the “effective vindication” doctrine in such cases, the U.S. Supreme Court on Nov. 4 denied a certiorari request in which trustees of an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) urged the high court to address what they argued is a circuit split on whether to “recognize the availability of individual arbitration for [Employee Retirement Income Security Act] claims.”
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November 04, 2024
Just 1 Claim In ERISA Top Hat Dispute Survives Summary Judgment Ruling
PHOENIX — Defendants won summary judgment on all but one claim in an Employee Retirement Income Security Act case concerning a “top hat” plan, with an Arizona federal judge saying that the remaining claim involves a factual dispute as to a purported $30,000 disbursement.
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November 01, 2024
5th Circuit Issues Mixed Ruling On Agencies’ No Surprises Act Regulations
NEW ORLEANS — An appeal concerning regulations implementing the No Surprises Act (NSA) drew numerous amicus curiae briefs and a mixed ruling, with a Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel reversing vacatur of three provisions, affirming vacatur of a fourth provision and agreeing with the lower court’s affirmation of disclosure requirements.
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October 31, 2024
11th Circuit Won’t Revive ERISA Suit Over FTCs Against Service Provider
ATLANTA — Saying two Employee Retirement Income Security Act claims challenging a 401(k) plan service provider’s retention of foreign tax credits (FTCs) “present issues of first impression,” an 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Oct. 30 affirmed summary judgment against the class, ruling that the FTCs were not plan assets and that the service provider was not a functional fiduciary.
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October 30, 2024
‘Ghost Networks’ Are Subject Of Putative Class Action Against Health Insurers
NEW YORK — Challenging what they call “ghost networks” under federal and New York law, plaintiffs sued health insurers that operate as Anthem Blue Cross and Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield in New York federal court, seeking to represent a putative class of participants in Anthem’s Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) program.
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October 29, 2024
3rd Circuit Affirms That Bankruptcy Code Exclusion Applies To ERISA Plans
PHILADELPHIA — A Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed that creditors in a Chapter 7 bankruptcy case cannot collect from two retirement plans governed by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act because a U.S. Bankruptcy Code exclusion applies “even if they were operated in violation of” the Internal Revenue Code (IRC) and that statute.
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October 29, 2024
7th Circuit Sets Oral Argument In MPRA Withdrawal Liability Row
CHICAGO — The Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has scheduled oral argument for Dec. 10 in a withdrawal liability dispute that involves the Multiemployer Pension Reform Act of 2014 (MPRA) and drew an amicus curiae brief in which two law professors say they think the challenged ruling is correct but want to give “statutory and policy context . . . before [the Seventh Cicuit] becomes the first (and perhaps only) appellate court to resolve this question.”
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October 28, 2024
Docs Put On Record After Oral Argument In ERISA Pension Risk Transfer Case
GREENBELT, Md. — After oral argument on the only fully briefed dismissal motion among the similar recent putative class actions challenging pension risk transfers (PRTs) under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, Lockheed Martin Corp. filed 10 documents at the direction of a Maryland federal judge.
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October 24, 2024
Challenge To Summary Judgment, Exclusion Ruling In ERISA Fees Row Is Dropped
PHILADELPHIA — An appeal of a summary judgment and expert exclusion ruling in an Employee Retirement Income Security Act class action over allegedly excessive record-keeping fees has been dismissed with prejudice under a stipulation filed in the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.
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October 23, 2024
ERISA ‘Excessive Fee’ Settlements, Proposals Under $5M
Class settlements below $5 million have been finalized or proposed in 27 “excessive fee” Employee Retirement Income Security Act cases between May and mid-October.
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October 23, 2024
Adequacy Challenges Fail, Class Is Certified In ERISA Fees, Funds Lawsuit
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — Rejecting arguments that the named plaintiff and his counsel don’t meet adequacy requirements, a North Carolina federal judge granted certification of a mandatory class of more than 55,000 retirement plan participants in a lawsuit challenging the plan’s record-keeping and administrative fees and share classes.
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October 22, 2024
6th Circuit Again Uses Effective Vindication Doctrine In An ERISA Lawsuit
CINCINNATI — In an Oct. 21 unpublished opinion noting a different panel’s recent conclusion that “arbitration clauses that forbid participants from obtaining plan-wide remedies under [the Employee Retirement Income Security Act] are unenforceable,” a Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel reversed dismissal of a putative class action over allegedly imprudent management of a retirement plan.
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October 21, 2024
DOL, Big TPA Say They Agree In Principle To Settle Claim Adjudication Case
MADISON, Wis. — The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) and the third-party administrator (TPA) of hundreds of self-funded employee welfare benefit plans told a Wisconsin federal court on Oct. 18 that they reached an unspecified agreement in principle to settle the case the DOL filed over adverse benefit determinations regarding hospital emergency services claims and urinary drug screening claims.
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October 21, 2024
ERISA Fight Over Illinois Temp Worker Provision Returns To District Court
CHICAGO — The Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals immediately granted an Oct. 18 motion to voluntarily dismiss an interlocutory Employee Retirement Income Security Act appeal that Illinois Department of Labor Director Jane R. Flanagan said was prompted by the latest amendment to the Illinois Day and Temporary Labor Services Act (DTLSA) and unopposed.
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October 21, 2024
9th Circuit Won’t Rehear Appeal Where It Reversed Dismissal Of ERISA Case
SAN FRANCISCO — With no substantive explanation for why it chose to let the unpublished memorandum disposition reversing dismissal of a putative class Employee Retirement Income Security Act suit stand, the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals rejected petitions for panel or en banc rehearing that drew two supporting amicus curiae briefs.
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October 18, 2024
Standing, Deference Are Among Disputes In Bid For 9th Circuit To Rehear ERISA Case
PASADENA, Calif. — Focusing on claims not at issue during a bench trial in an Employee Retirement Income Security Act pension benefits class action, the appellant urged the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to deny a petition for panel or en banc rehearing that is supported by an amicus curiae brief.
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October 18, 2024
At Least 7 Recent ERISA Putative Class Actions Target Tobacco Surcharges
In the past month, at least seven putative class actions targeting surcharges that tobacco or nicotine users allegedly must pay to maintain health insurance have been filed under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.
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October 18, 2024
U.S. High Court Asked To Review Big ERISA Multiplan Opt-Out Class Ruling
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Three service providers have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review a Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals decision they say “raises serious constitutional concerns as to the allowable breadth of class actions brought on behalf of hundreds of thousands of participants in thousands of unrelated employer-sponsored [Employee Retirement Income Security Act] benefit plans.”
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October 18, 2024
Federal Judge Says Claimant Failed To Meet Burden Of Proving Disability
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — A Michigan federal judge denied a disability claimant’s motion for judgment on the administrative record after determining that the claimant failed to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that she was disabled from performing the duties of her own occupation.
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October 17, 2024
Amicus Bid In 11th Circuit ERISA Effective Vindication Case Draws Opposition
ATLANTA — An advocacy organization’s request for permission to file an amicus curiae brief in an Employee Retirement Income Security Act putative class action where the lower court applied the effective vindication doctrine has drawn opposition, with the appellants telling the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that the proposal doesn’t add “to the arguments already before this Court” and “is tainted by the financial interests of counsel for Plaintiffs-Appellees.”