Mealey's ERISA : Mealey's : Legal News & Analysis

Mealey's ERISA

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PHOENIX — Affirming judgment for a long-term disability (LTD) insurance provider in an unpublished memorandum disposition, a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel agreed that the appellant’s agency had established an employee benefits plan governed by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.”
February 24, 2025
Default Judgment Entered Against Employer In Suit Over COBRA Notice

SAN DIEGO — Ruling in part that “failure to provide proper COBRA [Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act] notice and its misrepresentations to Plaintiff [was] the actual and proximate cause of Plaintiff’s injuries,” a California federal judge entered default judgment against an employer on negligence and negligent misrepresentation claims, awarding the plaintiff nearly $500,000 in compensatory damages plus interest and costs but denying attorney fees.
February 21, 2025
Imprudence Claim Survives Dismissal In Suit Over ESOP’s Cash-Equivalent Strategy

PITTSBURGH — A Pennsylvania federal judge on Feb. 20 dismissed a prohibited transaction claim but ruled that an imprudence claim asserted under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act survives in a putative class action filed by former and current employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) participants who say that about 20% of the plan’s funds have been kept in cash equivalents — money market funds and short-term certificates of deposit — since at least 2009.
February 21, 2025
2nd Circuit Upholds Pension Ruling For NBA Ref Terminated Over Vaccine Requirement

NEW YORK — Issuing a Feb. 20 summary order in favor of a former NBA Services Corp. (NSC) referee who was terminated for not being vaccinated against COVID-19, a Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed that the termination meant he qualified for a pension payment of nearly $3 million even though he has a separate pending discrimination lawsuit over the termination.
February 21, 2025
2nd Circuit Issues Mixed Ruling, Again Remands ERISA Deferred Compensation Row

NEW YORK — Cross-appeals in a long-running Employee Retirement Income Security Act deferred compensation dispute resulted in a mixed ruling that a Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel issued as a summary order, remanding for further proceedings.
February 18, 2025
At DOL’s Request, 5th Circuit Stays Appeals Concerning ERISA Fiduciary Rule

NEW ORLEANS — Noting that the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) motion to hold consolidated appeals in abeyance was unopposed, a Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals judge on Feb. 14 granted a 60-day stay in the challenges of July rulings that imposed a nationwide stay of the effective date of the DOL Retirement Security Rule that redefines and broadens who is an investment advice fiduciary under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.
February 18, 2025
Texas Federal Judge: DOL’s ESG Investing Rule Still Survives Under Loper Bright

AMARILLO, Texas — A Texas federal judge on Feb. 14 again upheld a 2022 U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) investment rule concerning environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors, rejecting what he called a request by the plaintiff states, companies and individuals “to expand the scope of the Fifth Circuit's limited remand and interpret [Loper Bright Enters. v. Raimondo] to affect standards it does not affect.”
February 13, 2025
6th Circuit Won’t Revisit 2-1 Revival Of ERISA Suit Challenging TDFs

CINCINNATI — The Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Feb. 12 briefly denied a petition for rehearing en banc that six amicus curiae entities supported in a combined brief; the 2-1 decision at issue revived an Employee Retirement Income Security Act suit over a retirement plan’s retention of the passively managed Northern Trust Focus Funds suite of target date funds (TDFs) and choice of share classes.
February 12, 2025
Lab Asks Court To Reconsider Dismissal Of Some Of Its COVID Test Repayment Claims

NEWARK, N.J. — In a lawsuit seeking reimbursement from health insurers for COVID-19 testing, a medical testing laboratory moved a New Jersey federal court for reconsideration of its order dismissing the lab’s claims based on retroactive assignments of rights by beneficiaries of plans governed by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, distinguishing precedent the court cited and dismissing its breach of implied contract claims, arguing that it was for the jury to determine whether the insurer’s direct reimbursements early in the pandemic were sufficient to allege a course of conduct.
February 12, 2025
DOL To 5th Circuit: Hold Appeals Concerning ERISA Fiduciary Rule In Abeyance

NEW ORLEANS — Citing “the recent change in administration,” the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) on Feb. 12 asked the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to hold in abeyance consolidated appeals challenging two July rulings that imposed a nationwide stay of the effective date of the DOL Retirement Security Rule that redefines and broadens who is an investment advice fiduciary under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.
February 12, 2025
6th Circuit Affirms Former Exec’s Losses In ‘Top Hat’ Severance Benefits Row

CINCINNATI — Affirming that the executive severance plan at issue in the Employee Retirement Income Security Act suit “qualifies as a top-hat plan,” a Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel upheld discovery and judgment on the administrative record rulings against the appellant and found no error in the striking of his jury demand.
February 11, 2025
Consent Order Worth More Than $20M Proposed In Suit Against Big TPA

MADISON, Wis. — The third-party administrator (TPA) of hundreds of self-funded employee welfare benefit plans would “pay or cause to be paid at least $20,250,000,” plus civil penalties, under a consent order and judgment proposed to resolve a suit challenging adverse benefit determinations regarding hospital emergency services claims and urinary drug screening claims, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) told a Wisconsin federal court.
February 11, 2025
9th Circuit Lets Ruling That Plan Doesn’t Have To Cover Residential Stay Stand

SAN FRANCISCO — A self-funded health plan does not have to cover a nearly yearlong stay at a residential mental health provider under a ruling that a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel upheld in an unpublished memorandum disposition; the Employee Retirement Income Security Act dispute centered on the use of what are known as “InterQual criteria.”
February 11, 2025
1st Circuit Affirms Multiemployer Pension Fund Win In Withdrawal Liability Row

BOSTON — In a two-page judgment, a First Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed a ruling for a multiemployer pension fund in a dispute concerning unpaid withdrawal liability, deeming “unpersuasive” the withdrawn employer’s contentions that it didn’t waive an exemption argument and that a demand letter constituted a violation of a bankruptcy stay.