Mealey's (October 24, 2017, 12:34 PM EDT) -- NEWARK, N.J. — A New Jersey federal judge on Oct. 5 preliminarily approved a $42.5 million settlement agreement in a consolidated Employee Retirement Income Security Act class action that alleges that a health care provider denied ERISA protections to the participants and beneficiaries of a pension plan by incorrectly claiming that the plan qualified as an ERISA-exempt “church plan” (Donna Garbaccio, et al. v. St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center and Subsidiaries, et al., No. 2:16-cv-02740, D. N.J.)....