Labor Secretary: Trial Court Conflated Pleading Standards For 2 ERISA Claims

(March 8, 2016, 9:26 AM EST) -- CHICAGO — A trial court erred in dismissing two distinct Employee Retirement Income Security Act claims against the trustee of an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) after taking and applying a “special circumstances” test from Fifth Third Bancorp v. Dudenhoeffer (134 S. Ct. 2459 [2015]) that was never meant to apply to a case like the present one, Thomas E. Perez, the U.S. secretary of labor, argues in a Feb. 16 amicus brief filed in a Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals suit accusing the trustee of breach of fiduciary duty and prohibited transactions (Lisa Allen, et al. v. GreatBanc Trust Company, No. 15-3569, 7th Cir.)....