ERISA Violation Legal News Articles & Interviews

Santa Ana, CA Aaron Kushner and Eric Spitz, who mismanaged the investments of the Retirement Plan of Freedom Communications, Inc. (the Pension Plan) have offered to settle an ERISA lawsuit brought by the federal Pension Benefits Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) for $7.8 million.

Birmingham, AL In an ERISA lawsuit filed in the Northern District of Alabama, participants in the Compass SmartInvestor 401(k) Plan claim that Plan fiduciaries failed in their legal duty to act prudently for the benefit of plan participants and beneficiaries. The Plan offered only one poorly performing short-term bond investment option and failed to monitor the investment performance of higher cost funds, ostensibly selected to produce higher yields.

Boston, MA Since the beginning of 2019, a collection of class action ERISA lawsuits has worked to expose a secret pay-to-play scheme that arguably benefited Fidelity Management and Research Company and related companies (“Fidelity”) at the expense of 401k retirement savers.

San Francisco, CA Dignity Health has agreed to pay $100 million to settle a proposed class action ERISA lawsuit that accused it of using a undeserved religious exemption to justify underfunding its pension plan by $1.5 billion. The proposed settlement would require Dignity Health to add $50 million in retirement plan funding in 2020 and at least $50 million in 2021. In addition, the settlement requires Dignity Health to refrain from reducing participants’ accrued benefits because of a plan merger or amendment for 10 years. Dignity Health has also promised to fund the plan until 2024, making the minimum contribution recommended by actuaries to the plan.

Washington, DC It’s semiannual prognostication time for ERISA lawsuits, and in our crystal ball, we see a mysterious stranger, great fortune and heartbreak. No, actually, not. But relying on our lesser powers, we suspect that, for the next six months, three issues will loom large.

Los Angeles, CA Marshall v. Northrop Grumman Corp a class action ERISA lawsuit alleges that fiduciaries of the Northrup Grumman Savings Plan (“Plan”) squandered nearly $10 million in employee 401k retirement money through mismanagement that included paying unnecessary administrative fees between 2010 and 2016.

New York, NY McCutcheon v. Colgate- Palmolive Co. is a rarity among modern ERISA lawsuits for the simple reason that it deals with a defined benefit retirement plan. In her class action lawsuit, Rebecca McCutcheon claims that her benefit and the benefits of many participants in the Colgate-Palmolive Co. Employees’ Retirement Income Plan (“Plan”) were miscalculated. Surprisingly, the expert witness offered by the Plan was unable to answer fundamental questions about how benefits were calculated.

New Haven, CT Peter Salovey, the president of Yale University, must submit to a deposition in a long-running class action ERISA lawsuit. Vellali v. Yale University claims that the university, as a fiduciary of the Yale University Retirement Account Plan (the “Plan”), mismanaged Plan assets and investment options in a way that harmed workers trying to save for retirement. It occurs in the context of several similar university ERISA lawsuits. The results of these have been very mixed – some wins, some losses for plan participants, with no clear trend developing. Yale University also has a long history of labor troubles.

Los Angeles, CA Three ERISA lawsuits – two in the District Court for the Central District of California and two in the Northern District of California – show that ERISA can be a powerful tool to protect workers’ rights. Plan participants who claim that their 401k accounts were mismanaged are on a lawsuit hot streak, and patients who have had coverage denied for medical treatments deemed too “investigational” are beginning to see some success, as well.

Chicago, IL On March 31, participants in the Boeing Voluntary Investment Plan (VIP Plan) filed a class action ERISA lawsuit in the Northern District of Illinois. The lawsuit alleges that Boeing knew about problems with its 737 MAX series of airplanes and hid the bad news, all while encouraging plan participants to invest in company stock though the VIP Stock Fund. When the planes dove out of the sky, the stock price dropped, too. Although it hardly compares to the terrible and tragic loss of life, plan participants were also injured when their retirement savings vanished.