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April 29, 2026
NEW ORLEANS — Vacating a panel decision that included a partial dissent, the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on April 28 granted a petition for en banc rehearing that the appellant said concerns “[w]hether a request for compensatory money damages to remedy an alleged breach of fiduciary duties is an equitable, not legal, remedy”; the case challenges the behavior of the third-party administrator (TPA) of health plans.
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April 28, 2026
NEW YORK — Issuing a brief summary order upholding denial of a motion for accounting or postjudgment discovery in a partially successful class action over a 1998 conversion that turned a traditional defined-benefit pension plan to a cash-balance plan, the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals called the challenged decisions “careful and thorough” and said it affirmed them based on “substantially the reasons” the lower court cited.
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April 27, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In an April 24 docket entry, the U.S. Supreme Court requested a response to a certiorari petition in which a health plan beneficiary argues that Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals precedent from 1995 instituting an “information test” in Employee Retirement Income Security Act documents cases disregards the statute’s text; the petitioner says the high court “is unlikely to receive a cleaner vehicle to resolve a conflict that otherwise permanently entrenches two irreconcilable rules of national plan administration and subverts the uniformity of the federal common law.”
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April 27, 2026
DETROIT — In a ruling that included a choice-of-law analysis, a Michigan federal judge dismissed a suit challenging denial of long-term disability (LTD) benefits as time-barred under a group policy’s three-year contractual limitations period.
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April 27, 2026
JASPER, Ala. — A long-term disability (LTD) recipient is headed to the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to challenge an Alabama federal court ruling that lets stand the plan administrator’s decision to withhold her monthly benefit until it has recovered more than $16,000 that it said she was overpaid due to “a Social Security benefit for disabled widows” that the administrator determined should be offset.
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April 24, 2026
NEW YORK — Mostly denying cross-motions for summary judgment filed by the administrator of long-term disability (LTD) plan and a claimant who purportedly suffered from long COVID but was denied benefits, a New York federal judge concluded that material facts remain in dispute.
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April 23, 2026
NEW YORK — Responding to the appellees’ request to remove certain language from its decision in an Employee Retirement Income Security Act dispute centered on residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS), the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on April 22 issued an amended opinion that — like the initial one — partly reversed and remanded a ruling against pension fund trustees.
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April 23, 2026
RICHMOND, Va. — As urged by the appellees and a handful of amici curiae, the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals agreed that an incentive compensation program “qualifies as a ‘bonus plan exempt from’” the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, affirming summary judgment against a former financial adviser who filed the putative class action; one panel member wrote a concurring opinion to emphasize “that any other conclusion would generate an avalanche of deleterious consequences.”
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April 22, 2026
MINNEAPOLIS — A Minnesota federal judge granted final approval to an $84 million settlement and then closed the Employee Retirement Income Security Act suit that concerned allegations that Wells Fargo & Co. improperly used dividends of its preferred stock held in its 401(k)’s employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) fund; the judge noted that the defendants didn’t contest the plaintiffs’ assertion “that the settlement is ‘the largest-ever class action settlement of ERISA claims arising from an employee stock ownership plan.’”
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April 22, 2026
PHOENIX — Affirming summary judgment against a former mining engineer who unsuccessfully challenged termination of his long-term disability (LTD) benefits, the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said in an unpublished memorandum disposition that it found reasonable the insurer’s determination “and its lengthy explanation of the reasons” why the claimant was not disabled under the plan’s any-occupation standard.
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April 21, 2026
ATLANTA — Affirming that termination of long-term disability (LTD) benefits survives under the de novo standard of review, the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said in an unpublished opinion that the appellant “did not provide proof in the form of objective medical evidence, as required by the plan, that he continued to be unable to lift up to fifty pounds as his job required.”
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April 21, 2026
ABERDEEN, S.D. — Ordering the parties to file a revised discovery report in a suit challenging termination of long-term disability (LTD) benefits, a South Dakota federal judge referenced an allegation that the defendant “hired an attorney to” help the plaintiff pursue Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) benefits, saying that such an act “may imply a preference for insureds to seek and obtain SSDI in lieu of plan benefits” and could not be proved from the administrative record.
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April 20, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In its April 20 order list, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review a 2-1 decision involving statutory interpretation of the Multiemployer Pension Plan Amendments Act (MPPAA) that affirmed a withdrawal liability ruling in favor of a multiemployer pension fund.
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April 17, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In accordance with an agreement reached by the parties, the U.S. Supreme Court on April 16 dismissed a certiorari petition that it had requested a response to; the 2-1 appeals court panel ruling affirmed vacatur of an award that resulted from pro se arbitration over severance pay and concerned an Employee Retirement Income Security Act discrimination claim that the majority concluded the claimant never raised, and the petitioner had argued that the decision “encourages a cascade of litigation over the enforceability of arbitral awards.”
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April 17, 2026
CINCINNATI — Denying a request to require maintenance of disability and health insurance benefits via an injunction pending appeal, the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals concluded that the appellant has not shown “any irreparable harm that he will suffer without an injunction.”
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April 16, 2026
NEW CASTLE, Del. — In a unanimous en banc reversal of the Delaware Court of Chancery, the Delaware Supreme Court ruled that the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 does not bar “advancement of litigation expenses for the defense of state-law claims brought in state court” because the facts show that the advancement “does not relieve Defendants from ERISA responsibility or liability.”
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April 16, 2026
SAN JOSE, Calif. — Finding in part that the defendants “abused their discretion by ignoring all the evidence provided by Plaintiff’s treating physicians,” a California federal magistrate judge issued a mixed ruling in an Employee Retirement Income Security Act suit filed by a former software engineer who challenged the termination of his benefits under two short-term disability (STD) plans and argued that he was also entitled to long-term disability (LTD) benefits.
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April 15, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In an April 14 news release, the main U.S. government agency that enforces laws concerning voluntary employee benefits announced that it has updated its priorities, providing details in Field Assistance Bulletin 2026-01.
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April 14, 2026
INDIANAPOLIS — A health insurance plan participant who invoked the Employee Retirement Income Security Act in a putative class action seeking to get the prescription drug Zepbound covered as a treatment for her obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) mostly prevailed over dismissal motions, with an Indiana federal judge trimming one claim but otherwise allowing the suit against the plan administrator and its parent company to proceed.
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April 13, 2026
As the number of health plan sponsors facing putative class lawsuits over tobacco surcharges keeps rising, plaintiffs continue to get claims past dismissal most of the time, but in the last month one case has been dismissed while four survived dismissal wholly or in part; additionally, a similar case that slightly preceded the wave was ruled time-barred at summary judgment.
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April 13, 2026
FORT WAYNE, Ind. — On de novo review, an Indiana federal judge granted judgment in favor of a long-term disability (LTD) insurer that terminated benefits once the coverage allotted for mental conditions expired, ruling that the claimant failed to prove that a physical condition caused her debilitating symptoms.
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April 10, 2026
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Following de novo review that focused on a neuropsychological evaluation and a functional capacity evaluation (FCE), a California federal judge overturned the termination of a registered nurse’s long-term disability (LTD) benefits under an any-occupation definition of disability.
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April 10, 2026
SEATTLE — Adding to the mixed record in a string of similar Employee Retirement Income Security Act challenges to pension risk transfers (PRTs), a Washington federal judge granted dismissal of the putative class suit with leave to amend upon concluding that Weyerhaeuser Co. retirees had standing but failed to plausibly state their claims.
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April 08, 2026
CINCINNATI — Affirming that the Employee Retirement Income Security Act expressly preempts parts of Tennessee pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) laws, the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on April 7 called Pharm. Care Mgmt. Ass’n v. Mulready “instructive” and concluded that the laws’ any-willing-provider (AWP) and incentive provisions that apply to self-funded health plans are impermissibly connected with ERISA.
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April 08, 2026
CHICAGO — Saying in part that “even after ample discovery, Plaintiffs have not demonstrated that Defendants’ administration of the Plans caused them harm,” an Illinois federal judge granted summary judgment for the trustees of a nationwide multiemployer health plan on all claims in the Employee Retirement Income Security Act class action over plan expenses and allocations.