Mealey's ERISA
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March 17, 2025
Home Depot To High Court: Don’t Tackle ERISA Burden-Shifting Issue
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Responding to a U.S. Supreme Court request regarding to a certiorari petition that asks whether “burden-shifting applies to the element of causation under” part of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, The Home Depot Inc. and related parties argue in a March 14 brief that the challenged ruling was correct, that “the burden of proof makes no difference to the bottom-line result” here and that the issue “is relatively unimportant.”
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March 17, 2025
Drug Costs Under Employee Health Plan Are Focus Of Another ERISA Suit
NEW YORK — In an Employee Retirement Income Security Act fiduciary duty complaint similar to those filed in two other putative class cases, former and current JPMorgan Chase & Co. employees sued the company and related defendants over the prescription drug part of its health plan, alleging that mismanagement is evident from prices paid to pharmacy benefits managers (PBMs) “for many generic drugs that are widely available at drastically lower prices.”
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March 14, 2025
COVID Test Payment Suit Properly Tossed For Not Seeking Administrative Remedies
NEW YORK — A panel of the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed a judgment of a New York federal court, which dismissed a lawsuit by a medical practice seeking reimbursement for COVID-19 testing for the members of a health care workers’ union because the practice failed to establish that it had exhausted its administrative remedies in attempting to obtain payment.
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March 14, 2025
$299,000 Deal Gets Initial OK In ERISA Suit Over Plan’s Tobacco Surcharge
CHICAGO — An Illinois federal judge granted preliminary approval to a $299,000 class settlement that would resolve an Employee Retirement Income Security Act suit over annual $1,152 surcharges imposed on about 431 health plan participants who use tobacco.
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March 13, 2025
Judge Rules That Claimant With POTS Is Entitled To Disability Benefits
CHICAGO — Saying that many of the arguments an insurer made were “so weak as to call into question the good faith of its litigation position,” an Illinois federal judge overturned its determinations that postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS) was an excluded pre-existing condition and that the claimant is not totally disabled from her own occupation, ruling that the human resources manager is entitled to long-term disability (LTD) benefits.
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March 12, 2025
Defendants Win Compensation Row; Judge Rules Plan A Bonus One Exempt From ERISA
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Finding that the plan at the center of a compensation dispute “is a bonus plan exempt from” the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, a North Carolina federal judge granted summary judgment in favor of Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Inc. and other defendants in a putative class action.
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March 12, 2025
Judge Finds Factual Issue In LTD Benefits Calculation Dispute
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Calling the outcome “relatively uncommon,” a Tennessee federal judge denied competing motions for summary judgment and judgment on the record in a truck driver’s Employee Retirement Income Security Act suit over calculation of his long-term disability (LTD) benefits.
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March 12, 2025
5th Circuit Affirms Ruling For Employer In Pension, Shift-Differential Row
NEW ORLEANS — In an unpublished per curiam opinion, a Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed that the Employee Retirement Income Security Act preempts a Louisiana Wage Payment Act (LWPA) claim concerning a lump-sum pension payment and that summary judgment for an employer on a claim concerning shift-differential pay was appropriate.
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March 12, 2025
9th Circuit Pauses Appeal That Seeks Revival Of Custom TDF Claims
SAN FRANCISCO — Oral argument that was tentatively set for April 4 has been vacated in an appeal seeking revival of Employee Retirement Income Security Act claims concerning custom target-date funds (TDFs), with the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ordering abeyance pending a decision in a different appeal.
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March 11, 2025
Judge Upholds Denial Of Over $1.4M In Severance Benefits In ERISA Row
HOUSTON — Asserting that two U.S. circuit courts of appeals “have read the same Plan language differently and have reached different results on similar claims,” a Texas federal judge upheld denial of $1,403,571 in severance benefits in an Employee Retirement Income Security Act case that involved a change of control and disputes over a “good reason” clause and the correct standard of review.
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March 11, 2025
9th Circuit To Consider Bid To Revive Custom TDF Claims In Imprudence Row
SAN FRANCISCO — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals tentatively set oral argument for April 4 in an Employee Retirement Income Security Act appeal seeking revival of claims concerning custom target-date funds (TDFs), where amicus curiae the Chamber of Commerce of the United States of America supports affirmance.
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March 11, 2025
Consolidation Bid Yields Coordination Order In ERISA Suits Challenging 2016 Deal
NEW YORK — A New York federal judge declined to consolidate related Employee Retirement Income Security Act lawsuits challenging the same July 2016 Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) deal but directed that the cases — one filed by plan participants in 2022 and the other filed the U.S. Department of Labor in 2024 — proceed on the same schedule.
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March 10, 2025
2nd Circuit Sets Argument In Appeal Over Timeliness Of ERISA Pension Case
NEW YORK — The Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has set March 20 oral argument in an appeal seeking revival of a putative class action where all claims in a joint and survivor annuity (JSA) dispute over allegedly outdated mortality tables were ruled time-barred; the appeal has drawn input from amici curiae the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), the American Benefits Council, the ERISA Industry Committee (ERIC) and the Chamber of Commerce of the United States of America.
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March 07, 2025
Financial Advisers’ Stay, Intervention Bids Fail In Compensation Row
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Former Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Inc. financial advisers who said they are unwilling members of a putative class in a compensation dispute were denied permission to intervene after both sides opposed their motion, with the docket showing that a North Carolina federal judge issued an oral order.
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March 07, 2025
5th Circuit Affirms Refusal To Impose Statutory ERISA Penalty In Plan Documents Row
NEW ORLEANS — In an unpublished March 6 per curiam opinion saying in part that the appellant didn’t “establish that the district court abused its discretion in” determinations made following a bench trial, a Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed discovery and other rulings for the sponsor and administrator of an Employee Retirement Income Security Act medical benefits plan in a documents dispute.
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March 07, 2025
Disability Claimant Awarded $241K In Attorney Fees Based On Success On Appeal
PITTSBURGH — A disability claimant is entitled to attorney fees of $241,746 and costs of $8,277, a Pennsylvania federal judge said after determining that the claimant achieved success on the merits of his claim based on the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ decision to vacate a summary judgment ruling in favor of the disability plan.
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March 07, 2025
California Federal Judge Says Claimant Met Burden Of Proving She Is Disabled
SANTA ANA, Calif. — A disability claimant is owed more than $81,000 in long-term disability (LTD) benefits and is entitled to future LTD benefits because the claimant met her burden of proving by a preponderance of the evidence that she is disabled from performing the duties of any occupation as a result of ongoing cognitive and physical effects caused by chemotherapy treatment, a California federal judge said in granting judgment in favor of the claimant.
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March 06, 2025
Amended ERISA Case Challenging Forfeitures Survives Dismissal Bid
OAKLAND, Calif. — Although “sparse,” revised factual allegations are sufficient to survive dismissal in one of numerous Employee Retirement Income Security Act suits over the common practice of using forfeited nonvested retirement plan contributions to offset the plan’s sponsor’s required contributions instead of paying plan expenses that participants would otherwise bear, a California federal judge ruled.
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March 06, 2025
Federal Judge Affirms Disability Insurer’s Decision In STD, LTD Benefits Row
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Granting summary judgment for a disability insurer, a Kentucky federal judge ruled that “substantial evidence” supported termination of short-term disability (STD) benefits and that the claimant didn’t clearly establish the futility of filing a long-term disability (LTD) benefits claim.
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March 06, 2025
Disability Insurer Says Judgment Was Proper; Claimant Is Capable Of Sedentary Work
ATLANTA — A district court’s judgment in favor of a disability insurer was correct because the evidence supports the lower court’s finding that the disability claimant is not disabled from performing the duties of any occupation and is capable of performing sedentary work, the insurer contends in an appellee brief filed in the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.
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March 06, 2025
Stay Of Mandate Pending Planned Petition Denied In Disability Benefits Suit
NEW ORLEANS — A Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals judge denied a motion in which a disability claimant and her husband sought to stay a mandate after denial of their request for rehearing in the case where a panel entered an unpublished opinion in favor of a disability insurer; the movants said they plan to petition the U.S. Supreme Court to grant certiorari.
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March 05, 2025
11th Circuit Affirms Summary Judgment, Discovery Rulings Against STD Claimant
ATLANTA — Upholding discovery and summary judgment rulings for a disability insurer in a March 4 unpublished per curiam opinion, an 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel rejected the claimant’s arguments that the lower court “did not properly apply [the appellate court’s] framework for evaluating” claims asserted under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act and should not have denied her request for “discovery outside the administrative record.”
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March 05, 2025
2nd Circuit Revives ERISA Suit Over Multiemployer Fund Trustee Compensation
NEW YORK — Saying in a summary order that the “complaint plausibly alleges a concrete injury,” a Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel vacated and remanded dismissal of a putative class Employee Retirement Income Security Act case where a multiemployer profit sharing fund participant challenged compensation that he alleged trustees paid themselves.
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March 05, 2025
Lower Court Properly Found Disability Claimant Failed To Meet Burden, Insurer Says
CHICAGO — A district court properly found that a disability claimant failed to satisfy her burden of proving that she remained disabled from working in a sedentary occupation as a result of symptoms related to fibromyalgia, a disability insurer says in an appellee brief filed in the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.
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March 04, 2025
8th Circuit Affirms Rulings For Former Exec In ERISA ‘Top Hat’ Plan Case
ST. LOUIS — Saying that “[c]ontracts may refer to something that is non-existent without posing an interpretive problem,” an Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed a judgment ordering payment of nearly $5 million in deferred compensation benefits and $19,177.50 in attorney fees plus interest in a dispute over a “top hat” plan.