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Mealey's ERISA

  • October 28, 2025

    New 9th Circuit Test For ERISA Releases Is Focus Of High Court Petition

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The named plaintiffs in a long-running class action concerning severance benefits on Oct. 27 waived their right to respond to a U.S. Supreme Court petition in which an employer and related entities seek review of a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruling that they argue “creates a roadmap for plaintiffs to evade” releases of Employee Retirement Income Security Act claims.

  • October 28, 2025

    5th Circuit Slightly Revises Opinion In Health Care Claims Assignment Dispute

    NEW ORLEANS — Granting what it construed as a petition for panel rehearing in a reimbursement dispute over out-of-network care, the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals issued a slightly revised substituted opinion with the same result as the original — it mostly vacated and remanded summary judgment against health insurance plans.

  • October 28, 2025

    $4.7M Class Deal Reported In Tobacco Surcharge Case That Survived Dismissal

    RICHMOND, Va. — A putative class action that is part of a recent wave of similar Employee Retirement Income Security Act suits over health plan tobacco surcharges would be resolved under a $4.7 million settlement agreement that the plaintiffs told a Virginia federal court the parties have signed.

  • October 27, 2025

    5th Circuit Argument Set In Appeal Of Fees Award To NFL Disability Claimant

    NEW ORLEANS — The Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has scheduled Dec. 3 oral argument in an Employee Retirement Income Security Act appeal where the Bert Bell/Pete Rozelle NFL Player Retirement Plan challenges an award of more than $1.25 million in attorney fees and costs to a former National Football League player who sought a higher level of disability benefits than he had been awarded, and the former player counters that the issue “was forfeited long ago.”

  • October 21, 2025

    Parties, Amici File High Court Merits Briefs In Withdrawal Liability Case

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a merits brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to affirm the withdrawal liability decision at issue, multiemployer pension plan trusteesargue that the “timing rule” of Nat'l Ret. Fund v. Metz Culinary Mgmt. should be rejected as contrary to the text of the Multiemployer Pension Plan Amendments Act (MPPAA), “longstanding actuarial practice, and common sense.”

  • October 17, 2025

    Change Of Plans In Former Twitter Workers’ Severance Case Sparks Intervention Bid

    SAN FRANCISCO — On Oct. 16 — just under two months after the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals agreed to postpone oral argument based on the parties’ report of an unspecified “imminent class-wide settlement agreement” in former Twitter Inc. employees’ effort to revive their putative class action for more than $500 million in severance benefits — two former employees moved to intervene as of right on the grounds that the two named plaintiffs now intend only “to proceed with individual claims on an individual basis.”

  • October 16, 2025

    On Remand, ERISA Prohibited Transaction Case Is Sent Back To District Court

    NEW YORK — Nearly half a year after the U.S. Supreme Court reversed the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on the question of what is necessary to state an Employee Retirement Income Security Act prohibited transaction claim involving a service provider, the appeals court on Oct. 15 issued two one-paragraph orders — one recalling the mandate and reinstating the case, then one remanding the case to a New York federal court.

  • October 16, 2025

    Majority Of 11th Circuit Panel Criticizes Exhaustion Precedent But Applies It

    ATLANTA — After applying a 40-year-old circuit precedent in a unanimous Oct. 15 panel ruling affirming dismissal of an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) valuation case but remanding for clarification on “whether prejudice attaches,” two panel members suggested that the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals convene en banc “to consider overruling” that precedent, which they said “imposed a judicially-created and atextual administrative exhaustion requirement for fiduciary-breach and statutory claims under” the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.

  • October 16, 2025

    Judge Finalizes $50,000 Sanction For Disclosures To U.S. Labor Department

    OAKLAND, Calif. — Noting that the parties in a recently certified class action over alleged underpayment for out-of-network behavioral health treatment decided not to request oral argument after considering her tentative sanctions ruling, a California federal judge on Oct. 15 finalized an order for a law firm representing the plaintiffs to pay $50,000 for disclosures to the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) that she found constituted “a knowing and intentional breach of” a stipulated protective order.

  • October 16, 2025

    3rd Circuit Rules Against Plan Participant Who Challenged Pension Denial

    PHILADELPHIA — Rejecting the appellant’s arguments on each issue it reached in the Employee Retirement Income Security Act case and saying in part that a claim for “‘surcharge’ was artful pleading intended to reframe her . . . request for retirement benefits as equitable,” the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed rulings for merged pension plans and their administrators in a nonprecedential disposition.

  • October 15, 2025

    Judge Orders Private Equity Fund To Pay Almost $3M In Withdrawal Liability Suit

    KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Noting his previous finding that a private equity fund counted as an employer under the withdrawal liability provision of the Multiemployer Pension Plan Amendments Act (MPPAA), a Missouri federal judge ordered the fund to pay nearly $3 million, including interest, liquidated damages and attorney fees.

  • October 14, 2025

    7th Circuit Rejects ‘Safe Harbor’ Interpretation In Withdrawal Liability Case

    CHICAGO — Affirming a ruling against an employer in a withdrawal liability dispute involving the “payment schedule” and asset sale “safe harbor” provisions of the Multiemployer Pension Plan Amendments Act (MPPAA), the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said in part that Congress “did not choose to prevent ‘double recovery’ over other policy outcomes.”

  • October 13, 2025

    $332M Deal To End Residual Annuities Class Action Wins Preliminary Approval

    NEW YORK — A long-running Employee Retirement Income Security Act lawsuit over residual annuities would be resolved under a proposed $332 million settlement that a New York federal judge has granted preliminary approval.

  • October 10, 2025

    After Fees Award, LTD Insurer Drops Appeal Of Ruling That Doctor Is Due Benefits

    PHILADELPHIA — Weeks after the plaintiff in a long-term disability (LTD) benefits case was awarded reduced attorney fees of $117,297.50 by the trial court, the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals dismissed the insurer’s appeal pursuant to a joint stipulation.

  • October 09, 2025

    Judge Upholds Ending Of LTD Benefits, Rules That Emails Were Privileged

    MILWAUKEE — Concluding in part that the plaintiff didn’t show that the fiduciary exception to attorney-client privilege applies, a Wisconsin federal judge upheld termination of long-term disability (LTD) benefits in a case that involved disputes regarding the duties of the claimant’s “regular occupation” as a customer service representative who worked remotely.

  • October 09, 2025

    Pa. Federal Magistrate Recommends Dismissing Pension Risk Transfer Case

    PITTSBURGH — Agreeing with two of the five recent rulings in similar Employee Retirement Income Security Act putative class actions and citing Thole v. U.S. Bank N.A., a Pennsylvania federal magistrate judge recommended dismissing a pension risk transfer (PRT) challenge for lack of standing on the grounds that none of their three claimed injuries pass muster.

  • October 08, 2025

    Judge Tentatively Orders Sanctions For Disclosures To U.S. Labor Department

    OAKLAND, Calif. — Days after granting the plaintiffs’ third motion for class certification in an Employee Retirement Income Security Act suit over alleged underpayment for out-of-network behavioral health treatment, a California federal judge issued a tentative order on Oct. 7 for a law firm representing the plaintiffs to pay $50,000 for disclosures to the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) that she found constituted “a knowing and intentional breach of” a stipulated protective order in the case.

  • October 08, 2025

    New York Federal Judge Upholds Denial Of Attorney’s Claim For LTD Benefits

    NEW YORK — Saying that the determination at issue was “based on the objective evidence of doctors and psychologists,” a New York federal judge upheld denial of long-term disability (LTD) benefits for a corporate finance attorney who claimed that she became unable to do her job after her vehicle was rear-ended at a traffic light.

  • October 08, 2025

    Disability Case Involving Brain Injury Is Remanded For Vocational Analysis

    SAN FRANCISCO — On de novo review of a case challenging termination of long-term disability (LTD) benefits under an any-occupation standard, a California federal magistrate judge found that “the medical evidence does not establish that Plaintiff is unable to enter the workforce” but that vocational evidence is needed to determine whether the claimant is disabled under the plan terms.

  • October 07, 2025

    U.S. High Court Won’t Review 3rd Circuit Ruling On DuPont Pension Trust

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court in its Oct. 6 order list denied a pro se petition for review of a nonprecedential Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruling that the purported single-employer pension plan at issue is not governed by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.

  • October 06, 2025

    Key ERISA Claims Survive Dismissal In Yet Another Tobacco Surcharge Challenge

    MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The tally of challenges to health plan tobacco surcharges that have at least partly survived dismissal continues to grow, with a Tennessee federal judge letting key claims continue in a putative class action that is part of a recent wave of similar lawsuits.

  • October 06, 2025

    Judge: Retirees In PRT Challenge Have Standing But Didn’t State Claims

    BOSTON — Overruling objections from each party in a putative class action that is part of a wave of challenges to pension risk transfers (PRTs), a Massachusetts federal judge granted dismissal motions upon concluding that the plaintiff retirees narrowly have standing because of allegations that they “received an inferior financial benefit than that to which they were entitled” — but failed to state their claims.

  • October 06, 2025

    Defendants Win Dismissal In 4 More ERISA Cases Over Use Of Forfeitures

    Case law continues to accumulate in the wave of putative Employee Retirement Income Security Act class suits challenging a common use of forfeited nonvested matching retirement contributions, with four recent additions to the majority of rulings granting dismissal motions.

  • October 03, 2025

    Judge Dismisses Case That Challenged ESOP’s Use Of Low-Earning Cash Buffer

    STATESVILLE, N.C. — Declining to adopt the reasoning of a contrary Employee Retirement Income Security Act ruling issued in a different district, a North Carolina federal judge granted dismissal of a putative class action that challenged the use of a cash buffer by an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP).

  • October 03, 2025

    LTD Claimant’s Bid To Supplement Record Under Vega Is Denied

    LAFAYETTE, La. — Rejecting the plaintiff’s reliance on Vega v. Nat'l Life Ins. Servs., a Louisiana federal judge denied her attempt to supplement the record in her suit over termination of long-term disability (LTD) benefits with documents she tried to submit to the insurer months after it had closed the administrative appeal she had filed pro se.