Interestingly enough, the Supreme Court’s decision last week in Montanile v. Board of Trustees of the National Elevator Industry Health Benefit Plan is about the least complicated ERISA decision any court has issued in years. You know how I know that? The number of posts, tweets and articles published within days by law firms and
Settlements
What Can a Chief Retirement Officer Do for You?
This is so simple, its brilliant, and so brilliant, its simple – or something like that. The “this” I am talking about is the idea of appointing a Chief Retirement Officer, or CRO, as is discussed – and proposed – in Steff Chalk’s article, “The Advent of the Chief Retirement Officer,” in the …
Follow the Money: What Happens to the Proceeds of Class Action Settlements
By Stephen Rosenberg on
When you read in the paper about a large settlement in an excessive fee case or other claim involving a 401(k), ESOP or other ERISA governed plan, do you think about what happens next, and about how to distribute the money among the plan participants? I do, in cases where I have represented the class…
The International Paper Settlement and the Continued Vitality of Excessive Fee Claims
By Stephen Rosenberg on
One of the first long articles I wrote on ERISA (I had already penned some opuses on patent infringement litigation and insurance coverage disputes) was on excessive fee litigation, and was based, at heart, on the Seventh Circuit’s then recent decision in Hecker v. Deere. Titled “Retreat from the High Water Mark: Breach…
Grand Irony, or Just a Need for Better Litigation Tactics: Protecting the Severely Injured Plan Participant Against Reimbursement Claims under ERISA
By Stephen Rosenberg on
Roy Harmon and the Workplace Prof have the story of a severely injured worker whose settlement with the tortfeasor was effectively taken, in its entirety, by the plan administrator – Wal-Mart – on a reimbursement claim in accordance with the administrator’s rights under Sereboff. Roy Harmon has a nice factual discussion of the problem…
Settle the claim, don’t revise the plan
By Stephen Rosenberg on
Posted in Settlements
My colleague, Carl Pilger, cpilger@millermartin.com, who counsels companies and others on the design, implementation and operation of employee benefit plans at Miller & Martin PLLC, http://www.millermartin.com/, in Atlanta, notes that in settling lawsuits brought by plan participants, one should avoid establishing a pattern of revising a particular plan term or requirement in a…