Mealey's ERISA : Mealey's : Legal News & Analysis

Mealey's ERISA

July 10, 2024
Excluding Expert, Judge Grants Summary Judgment Against Class In ERISA Fees Suit

PITTSBURGH — Excluding an expert whose testimony has had mixed fates under Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals challenges in other courts, a Pennsylvania federal judge ruled against a large class in granting summary judgment for PNC Financial Services Group Inc. and related defendants in an Employee Retirement Income Security Act suit over allegedly excessive record-keeping fees.
July 10, 2024
Class Counsel Get 25% Of $1M Settlement In ERISA Record-Keeping Fees Case

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Granting final approval to a $1 million class settlement with Yale-New Haven Hospital Inc. and related entities to resolve allegations of imprudent record-keeping and administrative (RK&A) retirement plan fees, a Connecticut federal judge awarded class counsel $250,000 of that amount for attorney fees and expenses.
July 10, 2024
$5M Class Settlement Wraps ERISA Suit Over Health System Retirement Plans

DETROIT — Granting final approval to a $5 million class settlement in a suit challenging numerous aspects of the management of two Henry Ford Health System (HFHS) retirement plans, a Michigan federal judge awarded a third of that amount as attorney fees and $7,500 to each of the four named plaintiffs as an incentive.
July 09, 2024
9th Circuit Denies Bids For Attorney Fees, Reassignment On Remand In ERISA Row

SAN FRANCISCO — In a July 8 order without explanation, a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel that partly overturned dismissal of an Employee Retirement Income Security Act case over benefit statements denied pension plan participants’ opposed motions to reassign the case on remand and for $179,925 in attorney fees for the appeal.
July 09, 2024
8th Circuit Upholds Dismissal Of Cross-Plan Offsetting Suit For Lack Of Standing

ST. LOUIS — Distinguishing two decisions on which health plan participants relied, an Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on July 8 upheld dismissal of a putative class suit over the practice known as “cross-plan offsetting,” saying that the participants “have not shown a concrete injury.”
July 09, 2024
J&J Moves To Dismiss Amended Complaint In Fiduciary Breach Row Over Drug Benefits

CAMDEN, N.J. — Johnson and Johnson and the committee that administers the health plans the company sponsors have moved in New Jersey federal court to dismiss the amended complaint in a high-profile putative class Employee Retirement Income Security Act fiduciary duty suit focused on the plan’s pharmacy benefits manager (PBM) and prescription drug benefits.
July 09, 2024
2nd Circuit Denies Rehearing Bid On Jurisdictional Ruling In ERISA Arbitration Row

NEW YORK — Without explanation, the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals denied a petition for en banc rehearing in which a private investment manager argued that holding that part of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act “provides a cause of action to confirm an arbitral award in federal court” conflicts with precedent including Badgerow v. Walters.
July 08, 2024
Dismissal Bids Fail In Suit Over ESOP’s Allegedly Imprudent Releveraging Deal

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — In a July 5 ruling denying motions to dismiss an Employee Retirement Income Security Act suit concerning an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP), an Arkansas federal judge said in part that ESOP participants “plausibly allege[] that the terms of the releveraging deal were imprudent.”
July 08, 2024
LTD Claim Remanded To Allow Claimant To Respond To Independent Peer Reviews

MINNEAPOLIS — A Minnesota federal judge remanded a long-term disability (LTD) claim to allow a disability claimant to respond to independent peer reviews conducted by the disability insurer and to submit additional evidence in response to the peer reviews.
July 08, 2024
6th Circuit Panel Set In ERISA Fees Row Involving Effective Vindication Doctrine

CINCINNATI — The Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has named the panel set to hear July 18 oral argument in an Employee Retirement Income Security Act arbitration case involving an issue central to a number of high-profile rulings in the past few years — the effective vindication doctrine.
July 05, 2024
11th Circuit Reverses Summary Judgment In AD&D Row Over Vanished Mountain Climber

ATLANTA — Concluding in part “that a reasonable mountain climber would have recognized a high likelihood of injury or death,” an 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel reversed and remanded summary judgment for an insured’s sons in a dispute over accidental death and dismemberment (AD&D) benefits.
July 05, 2024
Amicus Certifiers Call Former DOL Rule ‘Dinosaur,’ Argue Against Reviving It

FORT WORTH, Texas — Saying in a July 3 amicus curiae brief that a lawsuit seeks “to resuscitate a dinosaur,” affiliated nonprofits that operate a financial planner certification program urge a Texas federal court not to grant a preliminary injunction or stay the effective date of a new U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) rule that redefines and broadens who is an investment advice fiduciary under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.
July 05, 2024
Pro Se Litigant’s Disability Suit Was Properly Dismissed, 6th Circuit Affirms

CINCINNATI — The Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on July 3 affirmed a district court’s dismissal of a pro se disability claimant’s suit after determining that the claimant was afforded the opportunity to allege claims under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act but failed to do so in accordance with the district court’s directives.
July 05, 2024
Failure To Consider Cognitive Issues Was Abuse Of Discretion, Federal Judge Says

BALTIMORE — A Maryland federal judge determined that a disability insurer abused its discretion in terminating a disability claimant’s long-term disability (LTD) benefits because the insurer failed to consider how the claimant’s cognitive issues affect her ability to work in her regular occupation.
July 03, 2024
Termination Of LTD Benefits Not Arbitrary, Capricious, Ohio Federal Judge Says

COLUMBUS, Ohio — A disability insurer’s termination of long-term disability (LTD) benefits after paying benefits for 19 years was not arbitrary and capricious because substantial evidence supports the finding that the claimant was no longer disabled from performing the duties of any occupation and the claimant failed to identify any evidence showing that the termination was arbitrary and capricious, an Ohio federal judge said in granting the disability insurer’s motion for judgment on the administrative record.
July 03, 2024
Intervention Allowed In 1 Challenge To DOL Investment Advice Fiduciary Rule

FORT WORTH, Texas — With a Texas federal judge’s permission, two trade associations filed an intervenor complaint in one of two similar suits seeking to have a new U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) rule that redefines and broadens who is an investment advice fiduciary under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act vacated.
July 03, 2024
After Evidence Of Insurability Probes, DOL Reports Settlements With Life Insurers

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Saying in a news release that “[i]nvestigations into other life insurance companies’ practices surrounding evidence of insurability [EOI] are ongoing,” the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) announced two settlements in which its investigations were resolved by life insurers’ agreements to follow certain procedures.
July 01, 2024
Challengers Of ESG Investing Rule Notify 5th Circuit Of Loper Bright Ruling

NEW ORLEANS — In their same-day notice of supplemental authority regarding the U.S. Supreme Court’s June 28 Loper Bright Enters. v. Raimondo decision, challengers of a 2022 U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) investment rule concerning environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors argue to the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that the rule’s tiebreaker provision should be struck down in light of the ruling.
June 28, 2024
Bench Trial Starts In ERISA Suit Over Spin-Off That Affected Retirement Benefits

PHILADELPHIA — A bench trial has begun in an Employee Retirement Income Security Act class action over corporate restructuring that affected early retirement and optional retirement benefits after a Pennsylvania federal judge denied summary judgment on all but one claim.
June 28, 2024
High Court Overrules Chevron Deference, Changes Standard For Regulatory Review

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on June 28 voted 6-3 to overrule the doctrine of Chevron deference as incompatible with the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) in two cases arising out of federal fishing regulations, changing governing precedent for federal courts reviewing agencies’ regulatory actions.
June 27, 2024
10th Circuit Dismisses ERISA Appeal Over Injunction That Removed Fiduciaries

DENVER — Ruling that a later order in the case made the interlocutory appeal moot, a 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel dismissed a challenge to a preliminary injunction that removed the administrator and trustee of an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) from their positions as fiduciaries.
June 26, 2024
Bench Trial Yields Ruling Against Class In ERISA Target Risk Funds Challenge

SEATTLE — Ruling against a class of Milliman Inc. retirement plan participants after an eight-day bench trial, a Washington federal judge concluded that retaining three “target risk” funds in the plan “was both procedurally and substantively prudent” and the class didn’t “offer a plausible estimate of any loss suffered by the Plan.”
June 25, 2024
Termination Of LTD Benefits Supported By Evidence In Administrative Record

BOSTON — A disability insurer’s termination of a claimant’s long-term disability (LTD) benefits was not arbitrary and capricious, a Massachusetts federal judge concluded June 24 after determining that the evidence in the administrative record clearly supports the insurer’s finding that the claimant was no longer disabled from performing the duties of any occupation.
June 25, 2024
Judge: No Private Right Of Action In CARES Act For COVID Test Reimbursement

BROOKLYN, N.Y. — A New York federal judge on June 24 granted a consolidated motion to dismiss filed by a group of health insurers in lawsuits brought by a COVID-19 testing lab seeking reimbursement for testing it claims the insurers should have paid for on behalf of its insureds during the pandemic.
June 25, 2024
DOL Reports To Congress On Its Review Of Pension Risk Transfer Guidance

WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a June 24 report to Congress noting the increasing use of pension risk transfers (PRTs) and the growth of reinsurance activity in the life insurance industry, the Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) of the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) said more exploration is needed before deciding whether some factors in guidance it issued nearly three decades ago “need revision or supplementation and whether additional guidance should be developed.”