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Mealey's ERISA

  • April 11, 2025

    Appellant In Withdrawal Liability Row Flags New Ruling For 11th Circuit

    ATLANTA — More than six months after oral argument in an Employee Retirement Income Security Act multiemployer pension fund withdrawal liability dispute where an employer asks the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals “to split from” a sister circuit’s ruling, that employer filed a notice of supplemental authority regarding a decision that disagreed with the challenged ruling’s reasoning.

  • April 11, 2025

    Judge Orders LTD Benefits Retroactively Reinstated In Basis Switch Dispute

    OAKLAND, Calif. — Rejecting the defendants’ request that the dispute instead be remanded to the insurer, a California federal judge who previously ruled that termination of a long-term disability (LTD) claimant’s benefits was an abuse of discretion has now directed that those benefits be retroactively reinstated.

  • April 10, 2025

    Summary Judgment, Supplemental Complaint Denied In Row Over Health Plans’ Status

    FORT WORTH, Texas — Saying that “the facts in the current record are insufficient,” a Texas federal judge denied summary judgment in a dispute over whether the Employee Retirement Income Security Act governs a health insurance plan for limited partnerships; the judge also declined to let the plaintiffs file a supplemental complaint that he concluded was outside the scope of remand by the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.

  • April 09, 2025

    Judge Considers Subjective Evidence, Rules For Disability Claimant

    TACOMA, Wash. — A production line manager who points to receipt of a COVID-19 vaccine as the start of numerous symptoms that made him unable to work successfully challenged a disability insurer’s denial of his long-term disability (LTD) claim, with a Washington federal judge entering an April 8 judgment that he is entitled to relief including at least 24 months of benefits.

  • April 09, 2025

    Class Certification Bid Fails In ERISA Early Retirement Equivalence Case

    MINNEAPOLIS — Plaintiffs who allege that early retirement benefits provided by their pension plan violate an Employee Retirement Income Security Act actuarial equivalence requirement saw their motion for class certification denied, with a Minnesota federal judge concluding that the proposed class had commonality and typicality problems.

  • April 08, 2025

    5th Circuit Affirms Ruling Against Disability Claimant In Any-Occupation Case

    NEW ORLEANS — Saying in an unpublished April 7 opinion that the administrative record shows “no evidence” that the appellant “is still disabled,” the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals upheld termination of long-term disability (LTD) benefits in the any-occupation case.

  • April 08, 2025

    Disability Insurer Urges 11th Circuit To Affirm Any-Occupation Ruling

    ATLANTA — Noting the role that social media posts played and arguing that the appellant’s evidence was not overlooked and the opinions of her doctors were not ignored, a disability insurer urges the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to uphold its termination of benefits as “based on substantial evidence, including multiple medical reviews, an uncontested vocational assessment identifying alternative occupations, and inconsistencies in [her] self-reported physical tolerances.”

  • April 07, 2025

    Judge Handles Exclusion Bids, Denies Summary Judgment In Excessive Fee Case

    WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — A class action over a retirement plan’s record-keeping fees and share classes is progressing toward a bench trial after a North Carolina federal judge granted two of the defendant’s three reliability challenges as to expert opinions and then cited competing expert opinions in denying summary judgment.

  • April 07, 2025

    Citing ‘Too Late’ Arguments, 2nd Circuit Affirms Residual Annuities Ruling

    NEW YORK — Saying in an unpublished April 4 summary order that the trial court correctly applied the law-of-the-case doctrine in a long-running Employee Retirement Income Security Act class action over residual annuities, the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals upheld entry of a revised final judgment; the appeal concerned a preretirement mortality discount (PRMD) and interest rate for projecting forward employee contributions.

  • April 07, 2025

    U.S. Supreme Court Won’t Review Timeliness, Fee Ruling In Miller Act Row

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — In its April 7 orders list, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review an Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruling that affirmed judgment for multiemployer funds on attorney fees and timeliness in a Miller Act case.

  • April 07, 2025

    10th Circuit Affirms Denial Of AD&D Benefits Under Medical-Treatment Exclusion

    DENVER — Saying in an unpublished April 4 ruling that the language of an Employee Retirement Income Security Act policy “unambiguously excludes benefits,” the 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed denial of accidental death and dismemberment (AD&D) benefits under a medical-treatment exclusion.

  • April 04, 2025

    ERISA Meaningful Benchmark Issue Is Focus Of U.S. High Court Review Petition

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Noting that their unsuccessful petition for en banc rehearing of the 2-1 decision was supported by six amici curiae, a retirement plan sponsor and related petitioners asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ revival of a putative class action concerning retention of a passively managed Northern Trust Focus Funds suite of target date funds (TDFs) and choice of share classes.

  • April 04, 2025

    Split 3rd Circuit Decides Withdrawal Liability Row For Multiemployer Fund

    PHILADELPHIA — Reversing dismissal of the Multiemployer Pension Plan Amendments Act of 1980 (MPPAA) case, the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said in a 2-1 ruling that a multiemployer pension plan that was still owed the bulk of a roughly $40 million withdrawal liability settlement agreement when the withdrawn employers filed for bankruptcy can sue other commonly controlled companies.

  • April 04, 2025

    9th Circuit Sets Argument In Withdrawal Liability Row Over Discount Agreement

    SAN FRANCISCO — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has scheduled May 20 oral argument in an appeal concerning an agreement to pay greatly reduced withdrawal liability to a multiemployer pension fund; the appellant, which signed the agreement before filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, seeks a ruling that would let it assign the agreement to its acquirer.

  • April 03, 2025

    Class Allegations, Most Parts Of Claims Survive In ERISA Benefit Statements Case

    LOS ANGELES — Resolving two motions filed by the remaining defendant in a pension benefit statements case that is on its second remand from the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, a California federal judge on April 2 declined to strike putative class allegations and partly denied dismissal.

  • April 03, 2025

    2nd Circuit Vacates Ruling That ERISA Claims In Pension Row Were Untimely

    NEW YORK — Saying in an April 3 nonprecedential summary order that the lower court “was permitted to find that the pension projection statements were incorporated by reference, but it erred in relying on the accuracy of the dates in those statements without providing the parties with the opportunity to submit additional materials,” the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals vacated dismissal of a joint and survivor annuity (JSA) dispute over allegedly outdated mortality tables.

  • April 03, 2025

    Reversing Dismissal, 9th Circuit Lets ERISA Excessive Fee Plaintiff Try Again

    PASADENA, Calif. — Ruling in an unpublished April 2 memorandum disposition that dismissal of an Employee Retirement Income Security Act challenge to a retirement plan’s fees and funds for lack of standing should have been without prejudice, the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals reversed and remanded.

  • April 03, 2025

    After Bench Trial In ESOP Deal Row, Illinois Federal Judge Rules For Defendants

    CHICAGO — Just over two years after the conclusion of a 14-day bench trial in a class action challenging a $265 million employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) deal, an Illinois federal judge ruled for the defendants on all remaining counts.

  • April 02, 2025

    Judge Allows Insureds’ ERISA, UCL Claims Against Cigna In AI Claims Denial Case

    SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A California federal judge granted in part and denied in part Cigna Corp. and its affiliate’s motion to dismiss insureds’ claims that they violated the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) and California’s unfair competition law (UCL) by allegedly denying coverage using an artificial intelligence algorithm.

  • April 02, 2025

    Federal Judge Denies Remand, Finds ERISA Preempts Disability Benefits Case

    COLUMBUS, Ohio — A federal judge in Ohio ruled that a terminated employee’s amended complaint seeking damages relating to long-term disability (LTD) benefits cannot be remanded to an Ohio court because the claims are preempted by the Employee Retirement Income Security Actand establish federal question jurisdiction.

  • April 02, 2025

    Judge Rules Tennessee PBM Provisions Preempted As To Self-Funded ERISA Plans

    CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — Concluding that parts of Tennessee law regarding pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) are “preempted to the extent they purport to govern self-funded [Employee Retirement Income Security Act] plans,” a Tennessee federal judge issued a permanent injunction enjoining Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance Commissioner Carter Lawrence from enforcing those provisions against the plaintiff directly or indirectly.

  • April 02, 2025

    $4M Class Settlement Gets Initial OK In Lawsuit Over ESOP Deal

    PEORIA, Ill. — An Illinois federal judge has granted preliminary approval to a settlement that would resolve an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) lawsuit on a class basis for $4 million; the development came as briefing remains suspended in an interlocutory appeal concerning whether the plaintiff can pursue planwide relief in a representative capacity given that class certification was denied due to intraclass conflict.

  • April 01, 2025

    Opt-Out Class Certified For 3 Issues In Multiemployer Health Plan ERISA Case

    CHICAGO — Saying in part that “common questions predominate over questions of liability but subside over questions of damages,” an Illinois federal judge on March 31 granted certification of an opt-out class “for only the issues of liability and injunctive relief, but not monetary damages” in an Employee Retirement Income Security Act case against the trustees of a nationwide multiemployer health plan over expenses and allocations.

  • April 01, 2025

    6th Circuit Sets Argument In 2 ERISA Pension Appeals Concerning Mortality Tables

    CINCINNATI — The Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has scheduled oral argument for May 8 in two appeals that involve use of decades-old mortality tables and whether part of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act requires “reasonable assumptions” in calculating certain pension benefits.

  • March 31, 2025

    Retirees’ PRT Case Against Lockheed Martin Survives Dismissal

    GREENBELT, Md. — The same day a similar suit was dismissed without prejudice in a District of Columbia federal court, retirees beat a dismissal motion in another one of the recent set of putative class Employee Retirement Income Security Act lawsuits challenging pension risk transfers (PRTs), with a Maryland federal judge ruling in their favor on March 28.