Mealey's ERISA
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February 01, 2024
$9.75M Settlement With Monitoring Boost Gets Final OK In ERISA Imprudence Row
BOSTON — A Massachusetts federal judge has granted final approval of a class settlement including a $9.75 million payment and a boost to monitoring processes for investments and service providers in an Employee Retirement Income Security Act case over fiduciaries’ allegedly imprudent fund choices.
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February 01, 2024
11th Circuit Sets Argument In ERISA Fees, Funds Row Involving Burden Shifting
ATLANTA — The 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has set oral argument for March 28 in an appeal that seeks to revive a class action over retirement plan fees and funds and that has drawn amicus input from the U.S. secretary of Labor and the Chamber of Commerce of the United States of America on the issue of burden shifting.
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February 01, 2024
LTD Claim Remanded To Plan Administrator To Complete Full, Fair Review
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — An Iowa federal judge remanded a disability claimant’s long-term disability (LTD) claim to the disability plan administrator after determining that the claimant was deprived of a full and fair review because the claimant was not afforded the opportunity to respond to new information used by the disability insurer in denying the claimant’s appeal.
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January 30, 2024
Business Center, Other Amici Urge 5th Circuit To Vacate DOL’s ESG Investing Rule
NEW ORLEANS — The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) Small Business Legal Center Inc. is among entities and individuals that have filed amicus curiae briefs urging the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to reverse a Texas federal court and vacate the U.S. Department of Labor’s 2022 investment rule concerning environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors.
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January 30, 2024
Judge: Twins’ Care Claims Survive ERISA Preemption, But Exhaustion Issues Remain
MIAMI — The Employee Retirement Income Security Act does not preempt contract claims brought by a medical provider seeking compensation for care provided to premature twins, but any future complaint must adequately allege exhaustion of administrative remedies, a federal judge in Florida said while granting a motion to dismiss in part.
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January 26, 2024
Appellees Urge 2nd Circuit To Affirm Ruling In ERISA Mortgage-Backed Securities Row
NEW YORK — Fighting arguments that a pension fund’s investment in mortgage-backed securities (MBS) made the mortgages plan assets under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, mortgage servicers told the Second Circuit Court of Appeals that “straightforward application of the governing regulation defeats” those claims.
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January 25, 2024
Denial Of LTD Benefits Was Not Arbitrary, Capricious, Federal Judge Determines
MADISON, Wis. — A disability insurer did not act arbitrarily and capriciously in denying a claim for long-term disability (LTD) benefits because the evidence in the record supports the insurer’s conclusion that the claimant failed to provide objective medical evidence in support of her LTD claim, a Wisconsin federal judge said.
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January 24, 2024
Stay Pending Appeal Best Choice In ACA Discrimination Case, Judge Says
TACOMA, Wash. — Staying a case while an insurer appeals a ruling finding that it violated Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) Section 1557’s prohibition on discrimination by imposing a blanket exclusion on gender-affirming care ensures that it does not have to take actions that would be difficult to undo and leaves the plaintiffs with the status quo, a federal judge in Washington said in granting the relief.
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January 24, 2024
DOL Updates Process For Administrative Exemptions To ERISA Prohibited Transactions
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) on Jan. 23 released a final rule amending “its existing procedure governing the filing and processing of applications for administrative exemptions” from the Employee Retirement Income Security Act’s prohibition on transactions between “parties in interest.”
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January 24, 2024
2nd Circuit Upholds Ruling Against Ex-Union Member Who Lost Benefits
NEW YORK — In a summary order, a Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel upheld dismissal of Employee Retirement Income Security Act claims and a Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act (LMRDA) claim that a retiree filed after being expelled from a union and losing pension and health benefits.
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January 24, 2024
Parties Stipulate To Dismissal Of ERISA Suit Over Loans That TIAA Serviced
NEW YORK — The parties in an Employee Retirement Income Security Act suit where certification of a class of thousands of retirement plans was overturned filed a joint Jan. 23 stipulation to dismissal with prejudice of all claims in the suit over collateralized loans serviced by Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America (TIAA).
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January 24, 2024
Certiorari, Summary Reversal Sought In ERISA Case Over Heart Transplant Denial
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Telling the U.S. Supreme Court that “every circuit to address the question presented was in agreement” before the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruling at issue, a petitioner requests certiorari and also suggests summary reversal in an Employee Retirement Income Security Act suit concerning when monetary relief is equitable.
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January 24, 2024
Disability Insurer Did Not Act Arbitrarily, Capriciously In Offsetting Benefits
PORTLAND, Maine — A federal judge in Maine granted a disability insurer’s motion for judgment on the administrative record after determining that the insurer did not act arbitrarily or capriciously or abuse its discretion by offsetting a claimant’s benefits to recover an overpayment because the plan terms clearly permitted the insurer to offset the benefits.
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January 23, 2024
Disability Claimant’s 2nd Suit Not Barred By Res Judicata, Panel Majority Says
PASADENA, Calif. — A disability claimant’s suit seeking long-term disability (LTD) benefits is not barred by the doctrine of res judicata because the claim pertaining to the denial of the claimant’s LTD benefits had not accrued when the claimant filed her first suit, the majority of the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said Jan. 22 in reversing a district court’s ruling in favor of the disability insurer.
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January 23, 2024
$11.8M Class Settlement Proposed In ERISA Case Against Health System
BALTIMORE — Asserting that an $11.8 million settlement will provide “average relief of $481 to Class Members,” the plaintiff challenging management of a Maryland health system 403(b) retirement plan under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act has asked a Maryland federal court for preliminary approval.
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January 22, 2024
Judge Dismisses ERISA Record-Keeping Fees Case Without Leave To Amend
GREEN BAY, Wis. — Adopting a report and recommendation (R&R) concluding that allegations of excessive record-keeping 401(k) fees were “not enough to cross the line from possibility to plausibility,” a Wisconsin federal judge on Jan. 19 granted dismissal of an Employee Retirement Income Security Act suit and rejected the plaintiff’s request to file a second amended complaint.
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January 22, 2024
Challengers To DOL’s ESG Investing Rule Urge 5th Circuit To Issue Reversal
NEW ORLEANS — A group of states, companies and individuals who unsuccessfully challenged the U.S. Department of Labor’s 2022 investment rule concerning environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors are urging the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to reverse summary judgment and vacate the rule, contending that “[a]llowing consideration of collateral factors as a tiebreaker violates” the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.
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January 19, 2024
Former Workers Win $2.4M In ERISA Severance Case Involving WARN Act Claim
ABINGDON, Va. — On remand of a case involving a severance plan and the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act, a Virgina federal judge granted two unopposed motions and entered a $2,407,471.90 judgment for class members.
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January 18, 2024
2nd Circuit: Judge In ERISA Row Over Facility Fees Didn’t Abuse Discretion
NEW YORK — In a Jan. 17 summary order affirming judgment for a health insurer and related entities in a suit over reimbursement for facility fees in New York, a Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel said in part that the trial court “did not abuse its discretion by admitting evidence related to” the insurer’s claims adjusting process.
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January 17, 2024
High Court Told ‘Chaos’ Will Ensue ‘In A World Without Chevron’ Deference
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court was told Jan. 17 that “chaos” will ensue “in a world without Chevron” deference by government attorneys, who urged it to apply stare decisis and uphold Chevron, which is being challenged in two cases arising out of federal fishing regulations.
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January 18, 2024
California Federal Judge Certifies 2 Classes In ERISA Row Over 401(k) Fees, Funds
SANTA ANA, Calif. — Largely rejecting a variety of arguments advanced by the defendants, a California federal judge granted certification of two classes in a consolidated Employee Retirement Income Security Act case over allegedly excessive record-keeping fees and the selection and retention of allegedly underperforming funds.
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January 18, 2024
Parties Stipulate To Dismissal Of Appeal In ERISA Row Over Imputed Withdrawal Liability
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Multiemployer pension plan trustees and a Bermuda insurance and reinsurance company have stipulated to voluntary dismissal with prejudice of the trustees’ appeal to the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals regarding dismissal of their lawsuit over $934 million in withdrawal liability.
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January 17, 2024
After $4.5M ERISA Deal Draws Denial, Parties Report Global Deal In Works
FLORENCE, S.C. — A week after a South Carolina federal judge denied a motion proposing a $4.5 million class settlement of claims against one defendant, the parties in a suit over a retirement plan’s use of proprietary collective investment trusts (CITs) have obtained a stay of all deadlines pursuant to a granted motion in which they reported reaching an unspecified “global agreement in principle on all salient terms of a settlement to fully and finally resolve all claims.”
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January 16, 2024
In Reversal, 9th Circuit Says Assignments Give Surgery Center ERISA Standing To Sue
PASADENA, Calif. — Reversing and remanding dismissal of a suit, a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled that patient assignments give a surgery center derivative standing under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act to sue for nonpayment of approximately $5.4 million in services rendered.
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January 12, 2024
Class Certification Bid Fails In ERISA Challenge To Multiple-Employer Plan Fees
MADISON, Wis. — Dismissing three of four plaintiffs for lack of standing and applying Spano v. The Boeing Co., a Wisconsin federal judge denied a class certification motion in a suit over the record-keeping and administration costs of a professional employer organization’s retirement plan because individual employers’ negotiations with the record-keeper resulted in “disparate fees.”