Where an insurer and employer challenged an award of benefits, costs and attorney fees in an action brought under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, the employee was enrolled in an optional life insurance benefit program after falsely certifying in ...

Tagged with: ERISA Life Insurance Optional Benefits Program

A federal judge has approved a $55 million class-action settlement in a pioneering lawsuit involving fees charged by a St. Louis company’s retirement plan. The law firm of Schlichter Bogard & Denton originally announced the agreement March 28 against ABB ...

Tagged with: ABB Inc. ERISA Schlichter Bogard & Denton U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri U.S. District Judge Nanette K. Laughrey

Plaintiff filed an ERISA action against defendant, alleging it wrongfully denied his claim for disability benefits under a group plan sponsored by plaintiff’s employer. The district court granted summary judgment to defendant, concluding it did not abuse the discretion afforded ...

Tagged with: Denial of Disability Benefits ERISA Group Policy

Where a former employee claimed that the investment committee of the employer’s retirement savings plan breached their fiduciary duties under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, the employee’s allegations were insufficient to plausibly allege that ERISA fiduciaries breached ...

Tagged with: Breach Of Fiduciary Duty ERISA Failure To State Claim

  Where plaintiff challenged the finding that an insurer did not abuse its discretion when it terminated his long-term disability benefits, the judgment is affirmed because even though the plaintiff presented some evidence of disability from his medical providers, the ...

Tagged with: Administrative ERISA Long-Term Disability Benefits Termination

The Kansas City-based investment firm American Century has prevailed in a class-action lawsuit brought against it by its employees, who alleged the company was disloyal to them in selecting proprietary mutual funds for their 401(k) plan. On Jan. 23, Chief ...

Tagged with: ERISA

Where plaintiffs brought a class action against the state and governor of Missouri and officials of the state’s public-defender system arguing that the state was failing to meet its obligations to provide indigent criminal defendants with meaningful representation, the state ...

Tagged with: Administrative civil practice ERISA Indigent Defendants Right To Counsel Sovereign Immunity Standing ‘Cross-Plan Offsetting’

Where out-of-network medical providers, who brought class-action cases litigating under ERISA for their patients against a health-insurance plan administrator, argued that the relevant plan documents did not authorize the administrator to engage in cross-plan offsetting, a doctor was authorized to ...

Tagged with: Administrative ERISA Standing ‘Cross-Plan Offsetting’

Zaeske v. Liberty Life Insurance Company of Boston (MLW No. 72040/Case No. 17-2496 – 10 pages) (U.S. Court of Appeals, 8th Circuit, Colloton, J.)

Tagged with: ERISA Insurance Long-Term Disability Benefits

Meiners v. Wells Fargo & Company (MLW No. 71942/Case No. 17-2397 – 9 pages) (U.S. Court of Appeals, 8th Circuit, Grasz, J.)

Tagged with: Deficient Pleading Employer – Employee ERISA Fiduciary duty

Moore v. Apple Central, LLC (MLW No. 71784/Case No. 17-1815 – 7 pages) (U.S. Court of Appeals, 8th Circuit, Loken, J.)

Tagged with: Employer - Employee ERISA jurisdiction Preemption