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Mealey's ERISA

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    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court in its Oct. 6 order list denied a pro se petition for review of a nonprecedential Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruling that the purported single-employer pension plan at issue is not governed by the Employee Retirement Income Security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

  • October 02, 2025

    ESOP Participant Prevails In Arbitration, Seeks Confirmation Of Award, Fees

    PHOENIX — An employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) participant who filed a putative class complaint but was forced into individual arbitration asked an Arizona federal court on Oct. 1 to confirm an $11,029.50 arbitration award and to confirm an order directing the defendants to pay $2,359,909 in attorney fees incurred during the arbitration proceedings and $132,310.97 in arbitration costs.

  • October 02, 2025

    After Bench Trial, Judge Rules For 401(k) Plan Fiduciaries In Management Dispute

    MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Saying the Employee Retirement Income Security Act “demands prudence, not perfection,” a Tennessee federal judge entered judgment in favor of AutoZone Inc. and related defendants following a bench trial in the class action that was filed over several aspects of their management of a 401(k) plan.

  • October 02, 2025

    Judge Rules For Insurer That Cut Off LTD Benefits Under Any-Occupation Standard

    WILMINGTON, Del. — Upholding termination of long-term disability (LTD) benefits under an any-occupation standard for a claimant who has multiple sclerosis (MS) and chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy (CIDP), a Delaware federal judge said in part that a final determination by independent appeal evaluator IMEDECS is not new evidence.

  • October 02, 2025

    Judge Lets Dismissal Of Claims Against Exec Stand In Stock-Sale Challenge

    BOISE, Idaho — Saying that the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) didn’t meet “the high burden of showing the clear error necessary for reconsideration,” an Idaho federal judge let stand his dismissal of claims against a former CEO and board chair who sold part of his stock in an allegedly inflated deal that is being challenged under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.

  • October 01, 2025

    Judgment Without Monetary Relief Wraps ERISA Suit Involving ESG Efforts

    FORT WORTH, Texas — Wrapping up a class action over environmental, social and governance (ESG) considerations and the purported proxy voting activism of nonparty investment management firms, a Texas federal judge issued a Sept. 30 judgment denying monetary damages but awarding “equitable relief to ensure that Defendants and their investment managers act solely for the pecuniary benefit of the Plan and implement compliance measures to ensure fidelity to” Employee Retirement Income Security Act fiduciary standards.

  • September 30, 2025

    New York Federal Judge Deepens Standing Split In Series Of PRT Challenges

    NEW YORK — Days after a different New York federal judge dismissed a similar pension risk transfer (PRT) complaint for lack of standing, a New York federal judge on Sept. 29 largely declined to dismiss a putative class case, ruling that retirees have standing because they sufficiently alleged that the PRT “created a substantial risk that Plaintiffs will not receive their benefits” and “diminished the value of Plaintiffs’ benefits.”

  • September 29, 2025

    9th Circuit Vacates Statutory Penalties Of $765 In ERISA Documents Case

    SAN FRANCISCO — Cross-appeals of an Employee Retirement Income Security Act documents case that resulted in statutory penalties of $765 were resolved against a health plan beneficiary, with the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals saying in an unpublished memorandum disposition that Netflix Inc. “disclosed all required documents as soon as administratively practicable ahead of the March 1, 2021, disaster order deadline and did not act in bad faith, especially in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.”

  • September 26, 2025

    Investment Manager’s Bid For Summary Judgment Fails In Proprietary Funds Case

    LAS VEGAS — Denying summary judgment in a class action only as to an investment manager accused of improperly selecting lackluster proprietary funds for a retirement plan, a Nevada federal judge on Sept. 25 reported finding “direct evidence” that the manager “employed unsound methods”; however, the judge also determined that the plan sponsor and fiduciaries escape liability because they “acted prudently in hiring” the manager.

  • September 26, 2025

    $8.25M Class Deal Ends ERISA Recordkeeping Case After Release Adjustments

    BOSTON — Following last-minute adjustments suggested by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) and an independent fiduciary, a Massachusetts federal judge on Sept. 25 granted final approval to an $8.25 million class settlement that resolved an Employee Retirement Income Security Act suit over a retirement plan’s allegedly excessive recordkeeping fees.

  • September 25, 2025

    A 2nd Pension Risk Transfer Case Is Dismissed For Lack Of Standing

    ALBANY, N.Y. — Nearly six months after the first two rulings on dismissal motions in a much-watched recent set of putative class actions challenging pension risk transfers (PRTs) that retirees allege increase the possibility that they won’t get all of their promised benefits because of factors including offshore captive reinsurance, a New York federal judge issued the third ruling on Sept. 24, granting dismissal without prejudice for failure “to plausibly allege any injury-in-fact sufficient to establish standing.”

  • September 25, 2025

    Former CEO Wins Retroactive LTD Benefits In Case Involving Occupational Duties

    CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — Finding in part that the former leader of a software company sufficiently showed “that the important duties of the average CEO include working sixty hours a week or more with frequent travel,” a Tennessee federal judge on Sept. 24 ordered that his long-term disability (LTD) benefits be reinstated retroactively through March 2021.

  • September 25, 2025

    ERISA Complaints Target Health Plans For Offering Allegedly ‘Dominated’ Option

    Two sets of plaintiffs represented by the same counsel have filed similar putative Employee Retirement Income Security Act class complaints against sponsors and administrators of self-funded health plans set up on a preferred provider organization (PPO) basis, alleging in part that they “have breached their fiduciary duty of prudence by assembling a menu of PPO options where there is no financial benefit to selecting” one option.

  • September 25, 2025

    LTD Insurer Wins On Setoff, But Claimant Gets Attorney Fees Of Over $460K

    NEW YORK — After a second bench trial on the stipulated record in a case challenging termination of long-term disability (LTD) benefits, a New York federal judge resolved calculation issues largely in favor of the insurer and resolved an attorney fee dispute in favor of the claimant.

  • September 24, 2025

    In Advisory Opinion, DOL Weighs In On Lifetime Income Strategy Program

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a Sept. 23 advisory opinion, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) addressed a question regarding whether a lifetime income strategy (LIS) program can meet certain qualified default investment alternative (QDIA) requirements. 

  • September 24, 2025

    Judge Talks Attorney Fees Justification In Granting Final OK To $7.9M ERISA Deal

    NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Devoting several pages to explaining why he overruled the lone objection to awarding a third of the $7.9 million class settlement for attorney fees, a Connecticut federal judge granted final approval to the deal resolving an Employee Retirement Income Security Act case concerning alleged underperformance that the plaintiff claimed was caused by a now-bankrupt hedge fund management company directing all the assets of its 401(k) plan into proprietary hedge and mutual funds that used “alternative” investment strategies.

  • September 23, 2025

    Claimant With Back Pain Is Due LTD Benefits Under ‘Regular Occupation’ Standard

    EUGENE, Ore. — Saying in part that reviewers “discredited Plaintiff’s subjective symptom testimony of chronic pain in contradiction to objective medical evidence in the record without providing a reasonable explanation,” an Oregon federal judge ruled that a desk worker was entitled to benefits during the plan’s “regular occupation” period but that the question of whether she was disabled under the subsequent “any occupation” period “is not properly before the court.”

  • September 23, 2025

    Magistrate Judge OKs Attorney Fees In Case Where She Ordered LTD Claim Remanded

    SAN FRANCISCO — Saying in part that the balance of the considerations outlined in Hummell v. S.E. Rykoff & Co. supports the request, a California federal magistrate judge granted the requested $139,770 in attorney fees and costs in a long-term disability (LTD) case where she previously concluded “that the plan did not follow the administrative rules or apply the correct plan definition” and remanded “without ordering reinstatement of the policy or an award of retroactive payments.”

  • September 22, 2025

    Suit Over Out-Of-Network Mental Health Providers Partly Survives Dismissal

    MINNEAPOLIS — Ruling that some claims asserted under the No Surprises Act (NSA) and Employee Retirement Income Security Act survive dismissal in a putative class action concerning out-of-network mental health providers, a Minnesota federal judge concluded in a Sept. 19 order that the named plaintiff sufficiently alleged that the health plan sponsor and claims administrator “breached a fiduciary duty when they failed to inform [her] of material information, including” non-network provider reimbursement rate (NNPRA) “pricing methods and methodology used to calculate reimbursement rates.”

  • September 22, 2025

    Split 3rd Circuit Reverses Ruling Against Employer In Overtime Contribution Case

    PHILADELPHIA — Saying in part that “the phrase ‘hours paid’ does not require increased contributions to multiemployer plans for overtime hours,” a split Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel issued a nonprecedential opinion on Sept. 19 reversing judgment against an employer; the majority did not reach “questions relating to determining pre- and post-judgment interest under” the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, but the dissenter opined that, among other things, imposing 18% postjudgment interest on delinquent contributions was an abuse of discretion.