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July 28, 2026
PITTSBURGH — Deepening the conflicting case law in a series of putative class actions challenging pension risk transfers (PRTs) under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, a Pennsylvania federal judge on July 27 dismissed one such case for lack of standing, saying in part that the retirees “haven’t plausibly alleged that there is a significant likelihood Athene would default to a degree that their pensions would be affected.”
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July 28, 2026
ST. LOUIS — After each party had filed a brief in the Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals concerning an attempt to revive a putative class Employee Retirement Income Security Act mortality table case, the appellants moved for voluntary dismissal of the appeal with prejudice and the appellate court granted the motion after the appellees reported that they did not object to the motion.
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July 27, 2026
LOS ANGELES — Concluding that a trade association “articulates a viable theory of injury” but lacks standing because “it fails to allege sufficient facts to show its members have suffered that injury,” a California federal judge on July 24 dismissed with leave to amend a suit in which the association argued that the Employee Retirement Income Security Act preempts a California state law that purports to impose fiduciary duties on the pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) of self-funded health plans.
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July 27, 2026
DENVER — Resolving two motions filed by a physician who is challenging denial of her claim for long-term disability (LTD) benefits, a Colorado federal magistrate judge allowed her to amend the complaint to seek exemplary damages but ordered her to respond to interrogatories concerning “the impressions or opinions of her former coworkers.”
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July 27, 2026
NORFOLK, Va. — Partly granting a motion filed by a Virginia state senator who formerly played in the National Football League and is challenging the league’s denial of his application for total and permanent (T&P) disability benefits, a Virginia federal magistrate judge directed that three documents be redacted and filed publicly but the rest of the administrative record remain sealed.
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July 24, 2026
BOSTON — Asking the First Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to reverse a ruling that a former attorney is entitled to ongoing long-term disability (LTD) benefits, an insurer argues that its termination decision was not arbitrary and capricious and should have been upheld because the attorney “failed to provide any objective proof of limitations which would prevent her from performing the material duties of her Regular Occupation.”
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July 24, 2026
BAY CITY, Mich. — Concluding on de novo review that termination of long-term disability (LTD) benefits for a claimant who had psychiatric illnesses and physical impairments was improper because the plan administrator “applied the wrong plan certificate,” a Michigan federal judge said that the claimant “comes up short on proofs relating to his physical condition” but “the evidence of his psychiatric conditions leaves little doubt as to his disabled status.”
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July 23, 2026
NEW YORK — Making the same key arguments it did in January in a similar interlocutory appeal, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) filed an amicus curiae brief urging the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to reverse a ruling that retirees had standing to file a putative class lawsuit that is part of a much-watched string of pension risk transfer (PRT) challenges; among other things, the retirees generally allege that the use of offshore captive reinsurers makes the insurers now responsible for paying their annuities more likely to fall short of their obligations.
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July 22, 2026
GREENVILLE, S.C. — Concluding that an insurer’s application of a preexisting condition exclusion was not reasonable, a South Carolina federal magistrate judge ruled that a claimant who stopped working shortly after being tentatively diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) was wrongly denied long-term disability (LTD) benefits.
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July 21, 2026
CHICAGO — On de novo review, an Illinois federal judge upheld termination of long-term disability (LTD) for a former Starbucks manager who has multiple sclerosis (MS), deciding that the manager “failed to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that she is unable to perform the duties of any gainful occupation for which she is reasonably fitted by education, training or experience.”
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July 21, 2026
OAKLAND, Calif. — Saying they would receive more than $9,531,455 and class counsel would separately get $3.5 million, a 220-member class of former Atmel Corp. employees asked a California federal court for preliminary approval of a settlement that would resolve their nearly decade-old Employee Retirement Income Security Act suit over severance benefits.
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July 20, 2026
CHICAGO — Affirming judgment against a class of employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) participants who challenged a $265 million deal, the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on July 17 explained that it found no clear error in the ruling that followed a 14-day bench trial.
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July 17, 2026
ATLANTA — Affirming a ruling that upheld denial of a claim for long-term disability (LTD) benefits, the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said in an unpublished opinion that the pro se litigant failed to show that he was disabled by cardiac or mental health conditions.
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July 16, 2026
NEW YORK — Declining to compel discovery outside the administrative record in a suit challenging denial of long-term disability (LTD) benefits for an attorney diagnosed with long COVID, a New York federal judge concluded that the attorney “has not shown how his requests are relevant and, if relevant, anything other than disproportionate to the needs of the case.”
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July 16, 2026
MIAMI — A former accountant sued Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada, the insurer and claims administrator of his long-term disability (LTD) insurance policy, in a Florida federal court, asserting that he is entitled to benefits under his LTD policy retroactive to the day the insurer ended benefits for his alleged disability related to long COVID, as well as other conditions, including headaches and brain fog, that have prevented him from working as an accountant since May 2023.
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July 16, 2026
PHILADELPHIA — Partly reviving a suit that New Jersey health care practices filed against health insurance carriers over reimbursement for out-of-network elective and emergency claims, the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals issued a nonprecedential opinion vacating dismissal of the practices’ Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) claims and some of the practices’ Employee Retirement Income Security Act claims.
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July 15, 2026
SALT LAKE CITY — Concluding that underperformance allegations concerning a synthetic guaranteed investment contract (GIC) are “insufficient to raise any relevant plausible inference” and that a prohibited transaction claim fails to meet the “minimal pleading standard” outlined in Cunningham v. Cornell Univ., a Utah federal judge issued a memorandum decision and order dismissing a putative class suit that retirement plan participants filed under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.
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July 15, 2026
HOUSTON — Ruling against a class of retirement plan participants that had prevailed following a bench trial, the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals issued an unpublished July 14 opinion vacating the judgment and remanding for fact-finding “to evaluate Article III standing” in the Employee Retirement Income Security Act suit over a retirement plan’s switch from a final average pay formula to a cash balance plan; in a separate concurrence, one member of the panel opined “that the type of consequences alleged constitutes an Article III injury.”
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July 15, 2026
ALBANY, N.Y. — Concluding that Thole v. U.S. Bank N.A. “precludes a finding of Article III standing absent a concrete injury regardless of the type of remedy sought,” a New York federal judge declined to alter or amend a September ruling in which he dismissed a putative class action challenging a pension risk transfer (PRT) under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.
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July 13, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Filing amicus curiae briefs in an Employee Retirement Income Security Act case, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) and other entities urge the U.S. Supreme Court to affirm that a putative class suit challenging purportedly underperforming retirement plan investments in hedge funds and private equity was correctly dismissed for failure to allege a “meaningful benchmark.”
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July 13, 2026
DALLAS — Retirement plan fiduciaries moved to dismiss with prejudice a second amended class action complaint filed under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA)by retirement plan participants challenging the plan’s former investment in a Prudential Guaranteed Income Fund and alleged recordkeeping fees, arguing that the participants still lack meaningful stable value fund comparators and rely on rejected financial condition allegations.
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July 13, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Following an audit prompted by allegations involving Employee Retirement Income Security Act class action litigation, the Office of Inspector General (OIG) for the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) released a public report finding that the agency “did not establish sufficient controls for how it shared confidential information using common interest agreements with non-governmental entities.”
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July 10, 2026
SAN FRANCISCO — An Employee Retirement Income Security Act case challenging the use of allegedly outdated assumptions to calculate annuities for married pension plan participants would be resolved in a settlement that the named plaintiffs say would provide “more than $149 million in combined monetary and prospective relief to” members of a proposed settlement class and subclasses that together would consist of nearly 170,000 individuals; in the preliminary approval motion filed in a California federal court on July 9, the named plaintiffs further say that up to $35 million for attorney fees and costs “would not reduce the monetary benefits to the Class.”
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July 09, 2026
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — Adopting a report and recommendation over the objections of a plaintiff whose long-term disability (LTD) benefits were terminated, a Tennessee federal judge granted an insurer’s motion for judgment as a matter of law (JMOL) and denied the plaintiff’s JMOL motion, concluding in part that the insurer “appropriately relied on review of Plaintiff’s medical records without requiring a physical examination.”
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July 08, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Weighing in on a separate aspect of the withdrawal liability case that spawned a May 21 ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court, the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on July 7 partially reversed and remanded a summary judgment ruling in which a multiemployer pension fund had prevailed on all issues.