Mealey's ERISA
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September 20, 2024
5th Circuit Likens Reversal Of Insurer’s Denial To Sister Circuit Rulings
NEW ORLEANS — In a Sept. 19 reversal calling one of the insurer’s statements “a doozy,” a Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled an insurer’s denial of partial-hospitalization benefits for child’s eating disorder substantively and procedurally deficient, also saying the insurer’s failure to respond to an administrative appeal regarding reimbursement rate “forfeited its rights to contest” that issue.
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September 19, 2024
3rd Circuit Orders Judgment For Trustees, Grandchildren In Trust Benefits Row
PHILADELPHIA — In a Sept. 18 nonprecedential disposition resolving all claims in a long-running case where trustees and grandchildren of the trust settlor had been ruled liable for tens of millions in underfunding, a Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel disagreed with the trial court’s key holding that the “coverage provision” of the Employee Retirement Act “is triggered on the facts of this case.”
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September 19, 2024
Class Counsel Get A Third Of $7.5M Settlement In ERISA Proprietary Trusts Row
FLORENCE, S.C. — A $7.5 million global class settlement in an Employee Retirement Income Security Act suit over a retirement plan’s use of proprietary collective investment trusts (CITs) has been granted final approval, with a South Carolina federal judge awarding $2.5 million of the settlement for attorney fees, $100,000 for service awards and $659,240.95 for litigation expenses.
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September 18, 2024
Appeal Filed, Attorney Fee Bid Contested In Suit Over Missouri’s ESG Factor Rules
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Missouri state officials have filed a notice of appeal regarding a ruling that imposed a statewide permanent injunction barring enforcement of parts of two new rules a trade association said would have required “a state-authored script” for “incorporating a social or nonfinancial objective into investment advice.”
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September 18, 2024
Disability Claimant Must Return $322K Overpayment To Disability Plan, Judge Says
SPARTANBURG, S.C. — A disability plan’s determination that a claimant must return $322,000 in overpayments made by the plan to the claimant was not an abuse of discretion because the plan requires any overpayment of benefits to be returned to the plan, a South Carolina federal judge said in granting the plan’s motion for summary judgment.
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September 18, 2024
Disability Claimant Owed LTD Benefits, Virginia Federal Judge Says
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — A Virginia federal judge granted a disability claimant’s motion for judgment on the administrative record and ordered the disability insurer to pay the claimant past-due long-term disability (LTD) benefits after determining that the claimant met her burden of showing that she is disabled from working as an engineer as a result of symptoms caused by long COVID.
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September 16, 2024
9th Circuit Partly Revives ERISA Life Insurance Case Involving Divorce
PASADENA, Calif. — Issuing an unpublished memorandum disposition in a group life insurance benefit plan case involving divorce and death, a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed dismissal of Employee Retirement Income Security Act claims against the plan issuer but partly reversed and remanded as to dismissal of a fiduciary breach claim against the plan sponsor and the committee that served as the plan’s administrator.
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September 16, 2024
4th Circuit OKs Interlocutory Appeal On Class Certification In Index TDF Case
RICHMOND, Va. — The Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Sept. 13 agreed to interlocutory review of a grant of class certification in an Employee Retirement Income Security Act case over BlackRock LifePath Index target date funds (TDFs).
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September 13, 2024
Summary Judgment Bid Largely Fails In ERISA Class Row Over Proprietary Funds
BOSTON — A Massachusetts federal judge has mostly denied summary judgment in an Employee Retirement Income Security Act class action challenging the selection and retention of proprietary funds, also denying the defendants’ requests to partly exclude the opinions and exhibits of two of the plaintiffs’ experts.
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September 13, 2024
2 More ERISA Suits Target Companies, State Street Over Pension Risk Transfers
Two more putative class actions are challenging pension risk transfers (PRTs) under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, bringing the total of PRT cases filed in recent months to at least seven.
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September 12, 2024
Magistrate Addresses Row Over Documents DOL Gave Plaintiffs Challenging ESOP Deal
DENVER — Ruling that a common interest agreement (CIA) does not protect the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) from waiving its privileges and protections by sharing investigative materials with plaintiffs challenging an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) deal, a Colorado federal magistrate judge on Sept. 11 said the plaintiffs gained “access to information they can leverage, use to take shortcuts, and rely upon to circumvent ordinary discovery protocols.”
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September 12, 2024
Government To U.S. High Court: Let EAJA Fee Denial In ESOP Challenge Stand
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Opposing a certiorari petition that is supported by two amicus curiae briefs, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) told the U.S. Supreme Court that denial of an Equal Access to Justice Act (EAJA) request for attorney fees and nontaxable costs in an unsuccessful challenge to an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) deal is a “factbound determination” that “is correct and does not conflict with any decision of this Court or of any other court of appeals.”
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September 12, 2024
11th Circuit Won’t Rehear ERISA Fees, Funds Ruling Rejecting Burden-Shifting
ATLANTA — The 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals denied a petition for rehearing en banc in which 401(k) plan participants argued that the panel ruling “conflicts with Supreme Court precedent, this Court’s precedent, and other circuits’ authoritative decisions” and that “[w]hich party bears the burden on causation, what satisfies that burden, and the standard for inadvertent waiver of all available remedies are questions of exceptional importance.”
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September 11, 2024
After ERISA 401(k) Win, Defendants Seek Awards Totaling $222,275
SANTA ANA, Calif. — Defendants who won on all claims after a bench trial in a consolidated Employee Retirement Income Security Act class action over 401(k) fees and funds have asked a California federal court to award them $10,000 in attorney fees from each of the three named plaintiffs and $192,275.32 in attorney fees and expert expenses from class counsel.
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September 10, 2024
Class Counsel Get A Third Of $11.8M ERISA Settlement In Retirement Plan Case
BALTIMORE — A Maryland federal judge granted final approval to an $11.8 million class settlement that the named plaintiff who challenged management of a Maryland health system 403(b) retirement plan under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act said “provides for average relief of $481 to Class Members,” also overruling the lone objection to awarding $3,933,333.33 for attorney fees.
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September 10, 2024
DOL, Other Departments Issue New Final Rules Implementing MHPAEA
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) on Sept. 9 joined the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the U.S. Department of the Treasury in issuing new final rules implementing the Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008 (MHPAEA or Parity Act).
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September 09, 2024
Class Certification Bid Fails In Remanded ERISA Case Over LTC Premium Hikes
BOSTON — On remand after partial revival of an Employee Retirement Income Security Act challenge to long-term care (LTC) insurance premium increases, a Massachusetts federal judge declined to certify injunctive relief and damages classes, saying in part that the central dispute “can only be resolved by examining extrinsic evidence that is necessarily individualized in nature.”
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September 09, 2024
11th Circuit To Hear Oral Argument In ERISA Withdrawal Liability Row
ATLANTA — Oral argument has been set for Sept. 26 in an Employee Retirement Income Security Act multiemployer pension fund withdrawal liability dispute in which an employer asks the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals “to split from” a sister circuit’s ruling.
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September 09, 2024
Citing Res Judicata, 9th Circuit Upholds Dismissal Of Suit Against Judges, Others
SAN FRANCISCO — Affirming dismissal of a pro se litigant’s suit against a chiropractor, attorneys, judges and Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes in an unpublished memorandum disposition, a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled in part that the lower court lacked jurisdiction to hear claims related to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act based on the doctrine of res judicata.
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September 09, 2024
Judge Certifies Summary Judgment Ruling In ERISA Fees Case For Publication
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A Kentucky federal judge has agreed to certify for publication a ruling in which she granted summary judgment against the plaintiffs on all claims in an Employee Retirement Income Security Act class action over record-keeping fees after excluding their expert but declining to exclude the defendants’ expert.
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September 06, 2024
Disability Claimant’s LTD Benefits Must Be Reinstated, Minnesota Federal Judge Says
MINNEAPOLIS — A Minnesota judge reinstated a disability claimant’s long-term disability (LTD) benefits after determining that the evidence shows that the claimant’s symptoms were disabling and that his condition did not improve to the point where he could work in his own occupation as a medical malpractice attorney.
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September 06, 2024
9th Circuit Stops Efforts To Revive Behavioral Health Benefits Claim In Coverage Row
SAN FRANCISCO — Saying in an unpublished memorandum disposition that it previously “reversed (without remand) both the district court’s class certification order and merits judgment on the denial of benefits claim,” a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel granted a mandamus petition in an Employee Retirement Income Security Act case where health insurance plan participants sought reprocessing of nearly 67,000 mental health and substance use disorder treatmentclaims.
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September 06, 2024
Amici File Briefs Urging High Court To Review NFL Disability Benefits Suit
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Three amicus curiae briefs, filed in the U.S. Supreme Court in support of a former National Football League player’s petition for a writ of certiorari, urge the high court to review the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ ruling that the former NFL player failed to prove he is entitled to additional disability benefits under the NFL’s benefits plan, arguing that a de novo standard of review applies based on the plan’s procedural violations.
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September 06, 2024
Utah Federal Judge Denies Disability Claimant’s Motion To Reopen Disability Suit
SALT LAKE CITY — A Utah federal judge denied a disability claimant’s motion to reopen a disability suit after determining that the claimant is required to file a civil enforcement action under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act because the dispute is centered on the disability insurer’s calculation of benefits.
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September 06, 2024
Disability Plan’s Special Conditions Limitation Rider Bars LTD Benefits Claim
BALTIMORE — A Maryland federal judge on Sept. 5 granted a disability insurer’s motion for summary judgment after determining that the disability plan’s special conditions limitation rider applies as a bar to the disability claimant’s long-term disability (LTD) benefits.