News and Insights on the latest ERISA litigation trends for employers
The District Court for the Southern District of Ohio recently dismissed an ERISA putative class action lawsuit asserting fiduciary duty claims based on allegations of unreasonably high administrative fees and relatively higher-cost, underperforming funds offered in TriHealth, Inc.’s 401(k) plan (the “Plan”).
Plaintiffs were TriHealth 401(k) Plan participants and beneficiaries. On behalf of a putative…
Recently, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin granted a Motion to Dismiss, dismissing ERISA breach of fiduciary duty claims, failure to monitor claims, and prohibited transaction claims in a putative class action involving Oshkosh Corporation’s 401(k) Plan. The plaintiff supported those claims with allegations of excessive recordkeeping fees, excessive share…
Recently, the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania granted a Motion to Dismiss, dismissing ERISA breach of fiduciary duty claims based on excessive recordkeeping fee allegations. The district court addressed the level of detail plaintiffs must provide to move an ERISA breach of fiduciary duty recordkeeping fee allegation from possible to…
The Seventh Circuit ruled recently that ERISA does not preempt certain state law claims against directors and officers because ERISA’s text and purpose contemplate parallel corporate state-law liability against executives who act as “dual hat” fiduciaries.
In Halperin v. Richards, Plaintiffs were co-trustees of a Chapter 11 liquidating trust for Appvion, a paper company that…
As a general rule, an asset purchaser does not assume the seller’s liabilities, including its ERISA obligations. Courts, however, have formulated an exception to this general rule via the doctrine of successor liability. Successor liability is an equitable doctrine requiring a court to “strike a proper balance between on the one hand preventing wrongdoers from…
American Airlines, Inc. and its affiliated credit union recently defeated an appeal challenging a low-yield investment option in the airline’s 401(k) plan when the Fifth Circuit ruled that the plan participants lacked Article III standing to bring their ERISA claims.
In 2016, the plaintiffs filed suit on behalf of a putative class of nearly 20,000…
On July 16, 2021, the District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin dismissed without prejudice four ERISA claims brought by a former employee alleging mismanagement of Infinity’s defined-contribution 401(k) plan. Plaintiff’s two Fair Labor Standards Act claims were not at issue and remain pending.
Plaintiff alleged that plan fiduciaries violated their fiduciary duties by…
The Supreme Court recently granted the writ of certiorari requested by Northwestern University retirement plan participants, following the Solicitor General’s plea for the Court to hear the case. Hughes v. Northwestern Univ., No. 19-1401, 2021 U.S. LEXIS 3583 (July 2, 2021). The certiorari petition phrased the question presented as: “[w]hether allegations that a defined-contribution…
In Bellon v. PPG Emp. Life & Other Benefits Plan, PPG Industries, Inc. & the PPG Plan Administrator, the Northern District of West Virginia recently addressed whether a predecessor company may be held liable for a decision made by its corporate successor to terminate retiree life insurance coverage and related benefits following spin-off.
The…
The District Court for the Southern District of Iowa recently dismissed an ERISA putative class action lawsuit challenging 401(k) performance and fees after plan participants failed to identify appropriate benchmarks in their complaint.
The court reinforced the Eighth Circuit’s standards for stating such claims, requiring that the plaintiffs allege facts establishing “a meaningful benchmark for…
