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Benefits
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March 26, 2024
Alcoa Retirees Score Partial Win In Life Insurance Fight
Alcoa USA Corp. violated its collectively bargained obligations when it unilaterally cut off company-provided life insurance benefits, but was within its rights to pay retirees to waive their claims to benefits, an Indiana federal judge ruled.
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March 26, 2024
Turf Co. Secures Dismissal Of Funds' Contributions Row
Benefits funds affiliated with the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades can't move ahead with their claims that a turf installer didn't pay contributions, a California federal judge ruled, saying the funds didn't include the calculation for payment in their allegations.
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March 26, 2024
Ill. Judge Needs More Info To OK $57M Chicken Antitrust Fee
An Illinois federal judge overseeing a sprawling antitrust litigation against broiler chicken producers said he couldn't rule on class counsel's renewed bid for a $57 million attorney fee award thrown out by the Seventh Circuit last year without more information on one of the firm's graduated fee arrangements in a similar 2015 antitrust case, which wasn't disclosed in the first go-around.
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March 26, 2024
Teamsters Duck Yellow's $137M Suit Over Restructuring Talks
The Teamsters have defeated Yellow Corp.'s $137 million lawsuit accusing them of pushing the trucking company into bankruptcy through intransigence in negotiations over a corporate restructuring, with a Kansas federal judge finding the company didn't exhaust the grievance process under a union contract before suing.
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March 26, 2024
High Court Wary Of Bid To Limit Abortion Pill Access
The U.S. Supreme Court seemed skeptical Tuesday of efforts by anti-abortion groups to severely limit access to the abortion medication mifepristone, with several justices appearing unconvinced that the groups had the right to sue over the Food and Drug Administration's regulation of the pill.
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March 25, 2024
Investment Firm Slips Plan Members' Self-Dealing 401(k) Suit
A New York federal judge on Monday threw out a lawsuit retirement plan participants lodged against investment firm AllianceBernstein accusing it of steering retirees' savings into its own poorly performing investments, saying there's no evidence the company was benefiting from these alleged actions.
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March 25, 2024
Solar Co. Downplayed Exposed Wire Issue, Investors Claim
Energy company Shoals Technologies Group Inc. has been hit with a proposed class action alleging it downplayed the cost of repairing exposed wires for customers and that investors were blindsided when the company finally revealed it would need to spend at least $60 million to fix the issue.
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March 25, 2024
Del. Justices Undo Toss Of Brookfield-TerraForm Merger Suit
Delaware's Supreme Court on Monday reversed the dismissal of a suit from former shareholders of TerraForm Power Inc. who challenged a squeeze-out merger by Brookfield Asset Management Inc., concluding a proxy statement failed to fully disclose alleged conflicts of interest involving special advisers Morgan Stanley & Co LLC and Kirkland & Ellis LLP.
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March 25, 2024
NC High Court Vacates Workers' Comp For Weight Loss Surgery
A divided North Carolina Supreme Court has adopted a test for determining when someone is entitled to workers' compensation for treatment related to their workplace injury and, in doing so, reversed a ruling finding a preschool must pay for an employee's weight loss surgery.
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March 25, 2024
X Can't Boot Severance Suit To Arbitration, Ex-Worker Says
A former employee told a Delaware federal court that X Corp. can't derail a suit alleging it owes $500 million for skimping on severance pay after Elon Musk took over and fired thousands of workers, saying X breached the pact it's trying to use to force arbitration.
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March 25, 2024
7th Circ. Reverses Union's $2.3M Win In Pension Dispute
The Seventh Circuit reversed a Teamsters pension fund's $2.3 million win in a dispute over withdrawal liability against a bulk transport company, finding that a lower court properly denied the union attorney fees but erred in ruling in the union's favor on the merits of the case.
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March 25, 2024
Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court
Last week in Delaware's Court of Chancery, litigants battled as Truth Social went public, Carl Icahn and Tripadvisor hit a roadblock, and more shareholders wailed about "invasive" bylaws. Oil drilling and pharmaceutical mergers sparked new lawsuits, and a sewing machine trademark owner sued to end a contract.
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March 25, 2024
Justices Won't Review Nullification Of Puerto Rico Labor Law
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to review a First Circuit finding that Puerto Rico's fiscal management board was within its authority to void a 2022 labor law expanding some benefits for private employees because it had not been given an opportunity to review the legislation.
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March 25, 2024
Class Cert. In United Military Leave Suit Will Have To Wait
An Illinois federal judge said he had doubts about claims that United Airlines owes pay to pilots taking military leaves, saying he'll wait for several appeals courts to decide the fate of similar suits before signing off on class certification.
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March 22, 2024
Activists Press Full 5th Circ. To Nix Nasdaq Diversity Rule
Conservative groups opposing a requirement that Nasdaq-listed companies publicly disclose board diversity data are pressing the full bench of the Fifth Circuit to declare the rule unconstitutional, arguing the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's involvement in the rulemaking process transforms the requirement into an unconstitutional restraint on free speech.
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March 22, 2024
Dril-Quip Investor Alleges Merger Will Entrench Board
A shareholder of oil drilling equipment company Dril-Quip Inc. hit its directors with a proposed class action in Delaware Chancery Court, alleging they added unreasonable provisions to the terms of its merger with Innovex Downhole Solutions Inc. to disenfranchise shareholders.
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March 22, 2024
Missed Deadline May Doom Union Worker's Benefits Fight
A Michigan federal judge on Friday warned a union worker alleging the United Auto Workers mismanaged her claim for benefits that she could have her lawsuit dismissed if she doesn't respond to the union's request to toss the accusations.
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March 22, 2024
Legal Tech Execs Can't Arbitrate ESOP Valuation Fight
A legal technology company's executives and related entities can't arbitrate a proposed class action alleging they undervalued the company's shares when shutting down its employee stock ownership plan, thereby costing participants $35.4 million, a Georgia federal judge ruled, finding the plan's arbitration clauses blocked remedies allowed by federal benefits law.
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March 22, 2024
Radiology Co., Trustee Must Face Ex-Worker's ESOP Suit
A Colorado federal judge refused to toss a proposed class action accusing a radiology company and its trustee of overcharging the company's employee stock ownership plan in a $163.7 million sale, saying the former workers' complaint puts forward enough details to back up their allegations.
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March 22, 2024
Union Seeks Quick Win In Nuclear Plant Healthcare Row
An IBEW local is urging a Pennsylvania federal judge to grant it a quick win in its fight to send to arbitration a grievance challenging a nuclear power plant operator's healthcare benefits contributions, arguing that the dispute falls within the parameters of the union's collective bargaining agreement.
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March 22, 2024
Plastics Co. Settles Claim It Forced Out Enlisted Worker
A plastics company that allegedly refused to promote a worker because he was about to deploy with the Ohio Air National Guard has settled claims that it discriminated against him and ultimately forced him to quit because of his military service.
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March 22, 2024
Congress Spares Employee Benefits From $400M DOL Cut
A commitment from Congress to keep funding level for the U.S. Department of Labor's sub-agency that oversees employee benefits despite a $400 million agency-wide cut was one of the highlights for benefits attorneys in a new fiscal year 2024 spending deal. Here are three takeaways from attorneys on the funding agreement.
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March 21, 2024
Chemours Faces Investor Suit Over Alleged Exec Misconduct
Chemical company The Chemours Co. and four of its current and former executives face claims they hurt investors by manipulating a certain financial metric so the executives might receive greater compensation under the company's incentive plans.
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March 21, 2024
Sen. Warren Wants SEC To Probe Musk Control Of Tesla Board
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., urged the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday to investigate whether Tesla's board of directors is independent from CEO Elon Musk, saying recent reports suggest the billionaire controls the board for his personal benefit.
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March 21, 2024
Cigna Slams Suit's Claims Of Algorithm-Led Coverage Denials
Insurance giant Cigna Group wants a Connecticut federal court to toss a proposed class action alleging that an algorithm unlawfully rejected hundreds of thousands of claims en masse and without a proper review, arguing the suit is based on a "misleading" news article and shows a misunderstanding of the health insurer's claim denial process.
Expert Analysis
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Abortion Pill Rulings Will Hinder FDA Authority
Although the Fifth Circuit recently stayed a Texas federal court's ruling that invalidated the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's approval of a commonly used abortion medication, several points made by the courts are worth considering for their potentially chilling effect on FDA authority and the challenges they may create for the life sciences industry, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.
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Every Lawyer Can Act To Prevent Peer Suicide
Members of the legal industry can help prevent suicide among their colleagues, and better protect their own mental health, by learning the predictors and symptoms of depression among attorneys and knowing when and how to get practical aid to peers in crisis, says Joan Bibelhausen at Minnesota Lawyers Concerned for Lawyers.
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Building On Successful Judicial Assignment Reform In Texas
Prompt action by the Judicial Conference could curtail judge shopping and improve the efficiency and procedural fairness of the federal courts by implementing random districtwide assignment of cases, which has recently proven successful in Texas patent litigation, says Dabney Carr at Troutman Pepper.
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Investor Proposals Show Abortion A Rising ESG Concern
The 2023 proxy season's wave of shareholder proposals about abortion-related issues signals that the post-Dobbs world expects companies to seriously consider and articulate comprehensive strategies for addressing how abortion and other environmental, social and governance issues affect investors and employees, say Carrie Byrnes and Megan Juel at Michael Best.
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DOJ's Compensation Reforms Pit Cos. Against Their Execs
The U.S. Department of Justice’s new policy, incentivizing compliance-focused corporate compensation programs and prompt disclosures of misconduct, will complicate the relationship between companies and their executives, and create potential ethical conflicts for counsel, say Solomon Shinerock and Annika Conrad at Lewis Baach.
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Do Videoconferences Establish Jurisdiction With Defendants?
What it means to have minimum contacts in a foreign jurisdiction is changing as people become more accustomed to meeting via video, and defendants’ participation in videoconferencing may be used as a sword or a shield in courts’ personal jurisdiction analysis, says Patrick Hickey at Moye White.
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Top 5 Issues For Employers If Their Bank Suddenly Fails
The sudden closure of a bank can create a host of ripple effects, and if such a liquidity crisis occurs, employers should prioritize fulfilling their payroll obligations, as failing to do so could subject employers and even certain company personnel to substantial penalties, say attorneys at Manatt.
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Prepare Now To Comply With NJ Temp Worker Law
New Jersey temporary staffing firms and their clients must prepare now for the time-consuming compliance requirements created by the controversial new Temporary Laborers' Bill of Rights, or face steep penalties when the law's strict wage, benefit and record-keeping rules go live in May and August, say attorneys at Duane Morris.
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Takeaways From DOJ's Novel Insider Trading Indictment
The U.S. Department of Justice's recently announced insider trading charges in U.S. v. Peizer mark the first indictment based solely on an executive’s use of a Rule 10b5-1 trading plan, reflecting prosecutors' aggressive approach and providing insights for corporate executives, say attorneys at Cleary.
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Opinion
Humanism Should Replace Formalism In The Courts
The worrying tendency for judges to say "it's just the law talking, not me" in American decision writing has coincided with an historic decline in respect for the courts, but this trend can be reversed if courts develop understandable legal standards and justify them in human terms, says Connecticut Superior Court Judge Thomas Moukawsher.
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Acquiring A Company That Uses A Professional Employer Org.
With the professional employer organization industry rapidly expanding, those seeking to acquire a company that uses a PEO should understand there are several employment- and benefits-related complexities, especially in regard to retirement, health and welfare plans, say Megan Monson and Taryn Cannataro at Lowenstein Sandler.
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What Could Lie Ahead For Prop 22 After Calif. Appellate Ruling
On the heels of a California appeals court’s recent decision to uphold Proposition 22 — which allows gig companies to classify workers as independent contractors — an analysis of related rulings and legislation over the past five years should provide context for the next phase of this battle, says Rex Berry at Signature Resolution.
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New Pleading Standard May Empower Investment Fee Claims
The Seventh Circuit's recent attempt in Hughes v. Northwestern to provide a clear pleading standard applicable to prudence claims involving Employee Retirement Income Security Act excessive fees instead establishes a watered-down standard that will allow more cases to survive dismissal, say Lindsey Camp and Todd Wozniak at Holland & Knight.
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Don't Let Client Demands Erode Law Firm Autonomy
As clients increasingly impose requirements for attorney hiring and retention related to diversity and secondment, law firms must remember their ethical duties, as well as broader issues of lawyer development, culture and firm integrity, to maintain their independence while meaningfully responding to social changes, says Deborah Winokur at Cozen O'Connor.
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3rd Circ. Ruling Offers Tools To Manage Exempt Employees
The Third Circuit’s recent opinion in Higgins v. Bayada Home Health, finding the Fair Labor Standards Act allows employers to deduct paid time off for missed employee productivity targets, gives companies another resource for managing exempt employee inefficiency or absenteeism, says Laura Lawless at Squire Patton.