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Tag Archives: ERISA

US Supreme Court takes up ERISA fiduciary duty case

Seeking to resolve a rather lopsided circuit split, the justices of the U.S. Supreme Court seem poised to support a requirement that employees alleging breach of fiduciary duty overcome a pleading-stage presumption that employee stock plan fiduciaries acted with prudence.

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DOMA guidance could spur litigation wave

Recent guidance issued by the Department of Labor could trigger litigation over a new concern: whether private business owners with religious objections to gay marriage can be required to extend employment benefits to their employees’ same-sex spouses in states where such unions are not recognized.

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Employment — ERISA

10-3286 Central States, Southeast and Southwest Areas Pension Fund v. Waste Management of Michigan, Inc.

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10-3898 & 11-1006 Weitzenkamp v. UNUM Life Ins. Co. of America

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 substance abuse. It does not, ...

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10-2112 Jackman Financial Corp. v. Humana Ins. Co.

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 Machine Tool Corp., 423 F.3d ...

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09-804 Cigna Corp. v. Amara

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 “‘those categories of relief’” that, ...

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09-1750 In re: Motorola Securities Litigation

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 of the term ‘affiliate,’ but ...

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