4th Circuit Vacates Class Cert Denial, Partly Reverses Summary Judgment

Mealey's (June 24, 2021, 1:23 PM EDT) -- RICHMOND, Va. — A North Carolina federal court “focused on the wrong conduct” in analyzing whether a health insurer was serving in a fiduciary capacity, improperly concluded that a subcontractor could not be held liable under the theory that it was a party in interest engaged in prohibited transactions and “analyzed ascertainability and commonality too rigidly,” the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled June 22, reversing or vacating all but one part of the court’s summary judgment in favor of the insurer and its subcontractor in the Employee Retirement Income Security Act case and vacating the court’s denial of class certification....