June 2021 ERISA Litigation Update:

Given the continuing wave of ERISA litigation, this article has become a mainstay of The Speed Reader. A sample of recent cases is provided below.

The most common type of ERISA case for approximately the past fifteen years has involved retirement plan participants’ allegations that plan fiduciaries caused participants to pay excessive recordkeeping and investment fees and included one or more poorly-performing investment options in the plan. Recent cases in this category include the following:

• Baker v. John Hancock Life Insurance Company (settlement agreement approved by the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts on June 1, 2021).
• Reetz v. Lowe’s Companies Inc. (settlement agreement submitted to the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina on June 1, 2021).
• Gomes v. State Street Corporation (complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts on May 25, 2021).
• Cates v. Trustees of Columbia University (settlement agreement submitted to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on May 21, 2021).
• Thomson v. Russell Investment Management LLC (complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada on May 19, 2021).
• Boley v. Universal Health Services, Inc. (procedural ruling issued by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit on May 18, 2021).
• Becker v. Wells Fargo & Company (procedural ruling issued by the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota on May 12, 2021).
  
  

Another type of recent ERISA case is as follows:

United States v. McCaffrey (guilty plea entered on May 26, 2021 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts):  The defendant owned and operated an asbestos abatement company. Between November 2014 and May 2017, he continued to employ several undocumented individuals even though he had been notified of their status. Also during that period, the defendant knowingly falsified reports to pension plans regarding the work performed by the undocumented individuals, which caused the failure to make required pension contributions of over $337,000. The defendant is scheduled to be sentenced on Aug. 30, 2021. Pursuant to his plea agreement, the government will recommend a sentence of two years of supervised release, six months of home confinement, and a fine of $10,000 to $25,000.