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Mealey's ERISA

  • 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.

  • 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    NEW ORLEANS — In an unpublished March 6 per curiam opinion saying in part that the appellant didn’t “establish that the district court abused its discretion in” determinations made following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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.”

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • March 03, 2025

    Multiemployer Funds Tell U.S. High Court No Circuit Splits Exist In Fee Case

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — In the Feb. 28 brief arguing that “there are no circuit splits on the applicable law, and . . . the lower court properly applied settled law,” multiemployer funds urge the U.S. Supreme Court to deny review of an Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruling that affirmed judgment for them concerning attorney fees and timeliness in a Miller Act case.

  • March 03, 2025

    $8.35M Global Deal Proposed In ERISA Case Over Alleged Cost-Shifting

    ASHEVILLE, N.C. — After nearly a decade of litigation, an Employee Retirement Income Security Act class action over an alleged cost-shifting scheme concerning  health plan administrative fees for chiropractic and physical therapy treatment would be resolved in a deal that includes gross amounts of $4.8 million for members of individual and plan classes and a separate $3.55 million for attorney fees and costs under a proposal that the named plaintiff asked a North Carolina federal court to grant preliminary approval.

  • March 03, 2025

    $8.2M Class Settlement Proposed In Suit Over Target Date Funds

    ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Participants in four defined-contribution pension benefit plans who sued electricity provider PPL Corp. and related defendants under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act over the inclusion of Northern Trust target date funds (TDFs) and other purported mismanagement on Feb. 28 moved in Pennsylvania federal court for preliminary approval of an $8.2 million class settlement.

  • February 28, 2025

    Insurers Counterclaim In COVID Test Payment Suit, Allege They Were Overcharged $30M

    NEWARK, N.J. — In a lawsuit brought by a medical testing lab seeking reimbursement from health insurers for COVID-19 testing, the insurers filed an answer to the lab’s second amended complaint combined with counterclaims against the lab and a third-party complaint against a health care billing service allegedly owned by the owner of the lab.

  • February 27, 2025

    9th Circuit Affirms ERISA Preemption Ruling In Disability Benefits Row

    PHOENIX — Affirming judgment for a long-term disability (LTD) insurance provider in an unpublished memorandum disposition, a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel agreed that the appellant’s agency had established an employee benefits plan governed by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, so state law claims were preempted.

  • February 27, 2025

    Judge: Disability Pension Fund Didn’t Show Consideration Of All Relevant Evidence

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Addressing competing summary judgment motions, a District of Columbia federal judge remanded a dispute to a multiemployer disability pension fund, holding that denying a maintenance mechanic’s claim for permanent disability benefits “was not reasonable insofar as the Fund has not shown that it considered all relevant evidence before it.”

  • February 26, 2025

    Substantial Evidence Supports Termination Of Disability Benefits, Panel Says

    NEW YORK — The Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed a district court’s ruling in favor of a disability insurer, agreeing with the lower court that substantial medical evidence supports the disability insurer’s finding that the claimant is capable of working in a sedentary position.

  • February 26, 2025

    Bankruptcy Trustee To U.S. High Court: Sort Out Retirement Contributions Mess

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Asserting that courts are “in complete disarray . . . over a recurring question with billion-dollar aggregate stakes for thousands of Chapter 13 [bankruptcy] cases filed each year,” the trustee of a bankruptcy estate asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review a ruling where a split Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel concluded “that voluntary retirement contributions do not constitute disposable income” in Chapter 13 bankruptcies.

  • February 26, 2025

    Attorneys Get A Third Of $7.1M Settlement Of Class Action Over ESOP Deal

    EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. — An Illinois federal judge on Feb. 25 granted final approval to a $7.1 million class settlement resolving a suit over 2012 and 2013 employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) deals, awarding the requested 33% attorney fees that total $2,366,666.67 in the case where the plaintiffs said the lodestar based on their counsel’s “reasonable hourly rate” was more than $6.8 million.

  • February 25, 2025

    Putative Class Members Seek Intervention, Stay In Deferred Compensation Row

    CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Arguing ongoing impairment of their right to arbitration, seven former Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Inc. financial advisers moved in North Carolina federal court to intervene and to stay all proceedings in a putative class action in a dispute that the plaintiff argues concerns deferred compensation.

  • February 24, 2025

    7 Suits Over Insurer’s Data Breach Remanded To Wisconsin State Court

    MADISON, Wis. — A health insurance company did not establish that federal jurisdiction existed over seven putative class actions that it removed to Wisconsin federal court, a judge held, granting a motion to remand the suits over a 2024 data breach to state court, finding that exceptions to the Class Action Fairness Act (CAFA) defeated federal jurisdiction.

  • February 24, 2025

    U.S. Supreme Court Won’t Review 5th Circuit AD&D Benefits Ruling

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Feb. 24 denied a petition for review of a per curiam unpublished opinion in which a Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed denial of accidental death and dismemberment (AD&D) benefits.

  • February 24, 2025

    7th Circuit Upholds ‘Thorough’ Ruling Denying Systems Engineer LTD Benefits

    CHICAGO — Affirming a determination that a systems engineer isn’t entitled to long-term disability (LTD) benefits because he didn’t “establish that he is prevented from performing one or more essential duties of his occupation,” a Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel said in a nonprecedential per curiam disposition that its “independent look at the record” showed “no error, legal or factual.”