Magistrate Judge: Trial To Weigh ERISA Claims On Sale Of Training Firm To ESOP

Mealey's (July 27, 2020, 2:57 PM EDT) -- SAN FRANCISCO — A pair of participants in an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) that purchased 100 percent of their company will have to go to trial to argue that the company's former owners and selling shareholders violated fiduciary duties in the deal under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act and that they withheld crucial, nonpublic information that indicated that the company stock was overvalued, a California federal magistrate judge ruled July 6, granting in part and denying in part rivaling motions for summary judgment (Carol Foster, et al. v. Adams and Associates, Inc., No. 18-cv-02723-JSC, N.D. Calif., 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 118121)....