One of the great advantages a Massachusetts ERISA litigator has is that our federal magistrate judges are very good with ERISA issues, which is something that is well illustrated by this decision on the scope of the fiduciary exception to the attorney-client privilege in ERISA litigation. In Kenney v. State Street, the magistrate judge
Liberty Mutual v. Donegan: The Second Circuit Reinforces the Broad Scope of ERISA Preemption
The Second Circuit has just released its opinion in Liberty Mutual v. Donegan, which concerns whether certain Vermont state reporting regulations are preempted as applied to an ERISA governed plan. The Court concluded that they were, but the more interesting part of the opinion is not its analysis of that particular issue, but rather
Insurance Coverage for Disgorgement or other Equitable Remedies
You say disgorgement, I say damages. Sorry, I couldn’t, try as I might, make that fit into the old lyric “you say tomato, I say tomahto, lets call the whole thing off,” but the sentiment fits. In this recent Sixth Circuit decision, reported on here, the Court addressed the question of
Mike Webster to Dwight Harrison: What they Tell Us About the NFL’s Disability Benefits Plan
Wow – what more is there to say about this story by Michael Rosenberg of Sports Illustrated on the long and bitter fight by aging, 10 year NFL vet Dwight Harrison to obtain disability and pension benefits? The story itself is a beautiful piece of writing, humane and complex all at the same time.
There
Predicting the Future of Church Plan Litigation
Ahh, the wonders of church plan litigation. I had the distinct pleasure at an ERISA litigation conference recently of listening to a leading plaintiffs’ lawyer and a leading defense lawyer, who were both representing parties on opposite sides in class actions concerning whether benefit plans were actually church plans for purposes of ERISA, square off
Tick Tock, Tick Tock, Pay Attention to the Clock: The Importance of Procedural Timing Issues in ERISA Litigation
I have been tied up on trial out of state most of January, and am now starting to go back over the more interesting items that landed in my in-box during that time. One of my favorites is this Supreme Court decision in an ERISA case, which essentially holds that a party cannot wait for
Thoughts on Heimeshoff v. Hartford Life & Accident Insurance
The more I read yesterday’s Supreme Court’s decision in Heimeshoff v. Hartford Life & Accident Insurance, the more I return to the same position I expressed when the case was argued: that what the rule that is imposed by the Court turns out to be is much less important than that we actually have
Sprint(ing) Right to Federal Court to Protect Plans Against Preempted State Action
You know I think all things are about ERISA, and ERISA is about everything, don’t you? And of course, my view on this is even somewhat logical, and not just an outgrowth of my own personal interests. If you walk, talk, have health insurance, invest for retirement, have a pension or, even more so, work
Public Pensions After Detroit and Stockton
Well, returning briefly to my series on municipal bankruptcies – you really can’t write regularly about pensions in this day and age without addressing, even if unwillingly, that topic – the NY Times has a very interesting article on Stockton, California’s effort to leave bankruptcy, by basically shorting bondholders while leaving the ever rising pension
Who Is the Proper Defendant In an ERISA Denial of Benefits Claim? The First Circuit Has an Answer
I enjoyed this post on a fundamental question in ERISA denial of benefit litigation, namely which of the many entities involved with a plan – employer, plan sponsor, fiduciary, claim administrator, insurer, and so on – is a proper defendant to such a claim. As the post points out, correctly, there is some ambiguity on