11-1295 & 11-1427 Raybourne v. Cigna Life Insurance Co. of New York
11-3291 George v. Junior Achievement of Central Indiana, Inc.
10-3524 Schorsch v. Reliance Standard Life Ins. Co.
12-1230 Aschermann v. Aetna Life Ins. Co.
10-1136 Marantz v. Permanente Medical Group, Inc.
11-1112 Killian v. Concert Health Plan
Employee benefit plans could reduce long-term disability benefits by the amount of Social Security disability benefits received by the plan participants’ dependent children, the 7th Circuit has ruled in affirming judgment.
11-2889 Schultz v. Avaiall, Inc Long Term Disability Plan
10-3286 Central States, Southeast and Southwest Areas Pension Fund v. Waste Management of Michigan, Inc.
In Wisconsin, the made-whole doctrine has provided the insured with a legal right to pursue money from a tortfeasor to cover his or her losses.
10-1521 Burns v. Orthotek, Inc., Employees’ Pension Plan and Trust
09-4081 & 10-1755 Loomis v. Exelon Corp.
Employment
ERISA; attorney fees
Employment
ERISA; offsets
Employment
ERISA; class actions; attorney fees
Employment
ERISA; estoppel
Employment
ERISA
Employment
ERISA
Employment
ERISA
Employment
ERISA; LMRA
Insurance ERISA; self-reported symptoms limitation The failure to include a self-reported symptoms limitation in the summary plan description (“SPD”) prevents an ERISA plan from relying on it to discontinue benefits. “Here, the SPD clearly sets out that long-term benefits will be discontinued after twenty-four months if a participant’s disability is due to mental illness or [...]
Insurance
ERISA
Employment
ERISA; deference
Insurance ERISA; facility-of-payment clauses Where a life insurance policy contained a facility-of-payment clause, it did not violate ERISA for the insurer to pay the proceeds to the insured’s children. “Under the arbitrary and capricious standard, we overturn the administrator’s decision only where there is an absence of reasoning to support it. See Hess v. Reg-Ellen [...]
ERISA Equity Although ERISA does not give district courts authority to reform a pension plan, relief is authorized by sec. 502(a)(3), which allows a participant, beneficiary, or fiduciary “to obtain other appropriate equitable relief” to redress violations of ERISA “or the [plan’s] terms.” This Court has interpreted §502(a)(3)’s phrase “appropriate equitable relief” as referring to [...]
Securities ERISA; affiliated purchasers A corporation’s profit sharing plan cannot claim a share of the settlement of a securities fraud action. “[T]he Plan is an affiliate of Motorola and on this basis is excluded from the class, although we arrive at this conclusion by a slightly different analysis. The district court applied the ordinary meaning [...]
Insurance ERISA Where an ERISA claimant failed to file a timely administrative appeal, the plan is not required to consider the appeal. “In this case, the Plan has fixed a clear deadline of 180 days for filing administrative appeals from denials of benefits, and the Plan has the right to enforce that deadline. Also, though [...]
ERISA Attorney fees Where an insured obtains some success in suing an ERISA plan for denial of benefits, but may not ultimately prevail, the district court’s award of attorney fees is vacated pending reconsideration on remand. “We would be hesitant to conclude that the Defendants’ position, though unsuccessful in significant part, was so indefensible as [...]
ERISA Breach of fiduciary duty; diversification Where a retirement plan failed to diversify despite the investment’s collapse, the plan was properly found liable for breach of fiduciary duty. “We agree with the district court that a prudent investor would not have remained so heavily invested in RIC’s stock as the company’s fortunes declined precipitously over [...]
ERISA Breach of fiduciary duty Summary judgment was improperly granted to the defendant on a breach of fiduciary duty claim under ERISA, where the 401(k) plan had a unitized structure. “[T]he district court’s grant of summary judgment rests on its finding that the undisputed facts established that defendants actually made a reasoned decision between the [...]
