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Mealey's ERISA

April 16, 2025
Federal Judge Finds ERISA Governs Group Disability Plan, Dismisses State Law Claims

BOSTON — A Massachusetts federal judge granted an insurer’s motion for summary judgment, ruling that an employee’s long-term disability (LTD) insurance plan administered by her religious institute-affiliated employer is governed by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act and not exempt as a church plan, resulting in the dismissal of the coordinator’s state law claims without prejudice.
April 15, 2025
NFL Plan To 5th Circuit: Let Fee Award Appeal Proceed In Disability Benefits Row

NEW ORLEANS — Telling the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that the issues raised are not “grounds for dismissal” and that it “could not have forfeited an appeal of the new fee award and opinion before they existed, when the case was in the opposite posture,” the Bert Bell/Pete Rozelle NFL Player Retirement Plan on April 14 asked to be allowed to proceed with its appeal of an award of more than $1.25 million in attorney fees and costs to a former National Football League player.
April 15, 2025
Engineer To 4th Circuit: Affirm Ruling In Long COVID Disability Benefits Case

RICHMOND, Va. — Contending in part that de novo review was correctly applied because of an “inexcusable failure to issue a timely decision,” a long-term disability (LTD) benefits claimant urged the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to affirm a judgment that she is owed past-due benefits because long COVID symptoms have disabled her from working as an engineer.
March 20, 2025
Insurer To 4th Circuit: Overturn Ruling In Long COVID Disability Benefits Case

RICHMOND, Va. — Arguing that the lower court improperly applied de novo review and wrongly concluded that the claimant showed that she is disabled from working as an engineer because of long COVID symptoms, an insurer urged the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to reverse a judgment that the claimant is owed past-due long-term disability (LTD) benefits.
April 15, 2025
Judge Upholds LTD Benefits Termination For Failure To Show No ‘Working’

WORCESTER, Mass. — Upholding termination of long-term disability (LTD) benefits on de novo review, a Massachusetts federal judge ruled that an independent financial adviser didn’t meet his burden of showing that he had not been “working,” with that term defined as “engaging in activity regularly for wages or salary.”
April 15, 2025
7th Circuit Denies Petition Over Refusal To Transfer ERISA Mortality Table Row

CHICAGO — Citing a 1989 U.S. Supreme Court decision, the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals denied a mandamus petition concerning denial of a motion to transfer a putative class Employee Retirement Income Security Act case challenging pension calculations that used a mortality table from 1984.
April 15, 2025
Effective Vindication Rule Is Focus Of ERISA Imprudence Appeal In 9th Circuit

SAN FRANCISCO — In separate briefs, a former 401(k) participant and amicus curiae organization Public Justice urge the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to affirm that a nonseverable arbitration provision is void because it contains a class, collective and representative action waiver that they say prevents effective vindication of plan participants’ substantive right under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.
April 14, 2025
Judge: LTD Administrator Didn’t Abuse Its Discretion In Long COVID Case

MADISON, Wis. — Upholding denial of long-term disability (LTD) benefits for a claimant who was diagnosed with long COVID, a Wisconsin federal judge said in part that “even when symptoms are subjective, functional limitations caused by those symptoms can be objectively measured, so it is not arbitrary and capricious to ask for objective evidence.”
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.