Mealey's (April 29, 2021, 8:31 AM EDT) -- PASADENA, Calif. — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on April 19 held that an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) participant who alleged that a plan fiduciary breached the Employee Retirement Income Security Act duty of prudence by allowing participants to continue to invest in company stock after the fiduciary learned that the stock price was artificially inflated failed to meet the pleading standard set forth by the U.S. Supreme Court in Fifth Third Bancorp v. Dudenhoeffer....