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Insurer's Counterclaim For Return Of Overpayments Is Equitable, 2nd Circuit...
NEW YORK - A disability insurer's counterclaim seeking return of overpaid benefits is an action for "appropriate equitable relief" properly brought under Employee Retirement Income Security Act Section...
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High Court Will Not Review ERISA Subrogation Case
WASHINGTON, D.C. - The U.S. Supreme Court on March 25 declined to review an Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruling that a welfare benefit plan may not enforce its subrogation provision as an...
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Agencies Breach ERISA Duties By Failing To Adequately Fund Plan, 2nd Circuit...
NEW YORK - Not-for-profit agencies breached their fiduciary duties under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act by failing to increase contributions made to a multiemployer welfare benefits plan...
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Divided 2nd Circuit Holds Fiduciary Did Not Breach Duty Of Prudence
NEW YORK - The Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed 2-1 on April 2 that a pension plan failed to demonstrate that the plan administrator breached its fiduciary duties under the Employee...
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Fiduciary Duty Claims Against JPMorgan Related To Lehman Investments Continue
NEW YORK - A federal judge in New York on March 27 refused to dismiss claims by a pension plan's trustees that JPMorgan Chase Bank, National Association (JPM) breached its fiduciary duties under the...
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Employers Oppose High Court Review Of Ruling Finding Nonfiduciary Liability
WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals properly ruled that a nonfiduciary financial planner who marketed a tax avoidance scheme as a multiple-employer welfare arrangement (MEWA) to...
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Indemnification Agreement Does Not Violate ERISA, California Federal Judge Rules
RIVERSIDE, Calif. - Employee Retirement Income Security Act Section 410(a) does not void an indemnification agreement between an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) and its trustee where the agreement...
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Early Retirees May Receive Supplemental Benefits After Freeze, Judge Rules
GREENVILLE, S.C. - A federal judge in South Carolina on March 29 ruled that the anti-cutback provision of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act prevented a pension plan from enforcing an...
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6th Circuit: Retirees Who Executed Release Are Entitled To Additional Benefits
CINCINNATI - The Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed on March 28 that retirees are entitled to additional pension benefits on their claims that the cash-balance pension plan miscalculated...
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8th Circuit: No Federal Jurisdiction Over Severance Contract
ST. LOUIS - A federal court lacks federal subject matter jurisdiction to consider arbitrability arising under a severance agreement, even though the severance benefits were measured by reference to...
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Independent Review Is Not Arbitration That Bars Review, Judge Rules
PORTLAND, Ore. - A health plan participant is not precluded from seeking judicial review of a denial of benefits under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act based on review by an independent...
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Insurer's Conclusion That Autism Therapy Is Experimental Is Arbitrary, Judge...
DETROIT - A health insurer arbitrarily and capriciously denied coverage for applied behavioral analysis (ABA) therapy for autism based on the plan's exclusion for experimental treatment under the...
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Plan Did Not Abuse Discretion By Denying Benefits As Experimental, Judge Rules
NEWARK, N.J. - A medical provider failed to demonstrate that health insurers violated the Employee Retirement Income Security Act by denying benefits for treatment on the basis that it was excluded...
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California Federal Judge Awards Plaintiff Benefits In Denial Of Benefits Case
SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Following remand from the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, a federal judge in California on March 18 awarded a claimant benefits in a wrongful denial of benefits case at the...
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1st Circuit: Plan Improperly Offset Benefits With Veterans Disability Benefits
BOSTON - A disability insurer violated the Employee Retirement Income Security Act by offsetting a participant's payments under the plan by service-connected disability compensation under the Veterans'...
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7th Circuit: Multiemployer Plan Didn't Abuse Discretion By Suspending Benefits
CHICAGO - A multiemployer pension plan reasonably interpreted its definition of "total and permanent disability" in terminating a participant's disability benefits, the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of...
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6th Circuit: Benefit Termination Was Not Supported By Record
CINCINNATI - The Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on March 21 reversed a grant of summary judgment to a group disability insurer, finding that the insurer's reliance on a record review and a review...
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Divided 6th Circuit Upholds Denial Of Disability Benefits
CINCINNATI - An insurer did not act arbitrarily or capriciously in denying a claim for total and permanent disability benefits, even though it recited an incorrect definition of disability in its...
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Per Diem Allowance Properly Excluded From Benefit Calculation, 5th Circuit Holds
NEW ORLEANS - A disability insurer did not abuse its discretion under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act by determining that a traveling nurse's per diem allowance for meals and housing...
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Benefit Denial Was Supported By The Record, 5th Circuit Rules
NEW ORLEANS - The Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on April 2 upheld a grant of summary judgment to an ERISA-governed disability insurer that denied benefits to a claimant with back, neck and leg...
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