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October 28, 2026
The Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals will hear oral argument on Dec. 10 in the second of at least six appeals arising from a wave of putative class Employee Retirement Income Security Act challenges to tobacco surcharges; in another recent development, employers in three of the appeals have filed notices of supplemental authority regarding frequently asked questions (FAQs) that the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) and other agencies released in August.
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October 28, 2026
CINCINNATI — Affirming the trial court’s judgment in an Employee Retirement Income Security Act case concerning an accidental death benefits policy under which benefits were paid out years after an individual covered by the group policy was believed to have died in a shipwreck, the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said in an unpublished opinion that it found no abuse of discretion in the lower court’s use of a deferential standard of review or in its decision to deny prejudgment interest and attorney fees.
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October 27, 2026
DENVER — An Employee Retirement Income Security Act class action challenging an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) deal would be resolved under an unspecified agreement in principle the parties announced three days before a bench trial had been slated to begin in Colorado federal court.
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October 26, 2026
SAN FRANCISCO — Following recent amendments to the Healthy Airport Ordinance (HAO) that the city and county of San Francisco had enacted in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, a trade group’s lawsuit challenging the ordinance was dismissed without prejudice pursuant to a settlement agreement.
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October 26, 2026
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Upholding termination of long-term disability (LTD) benefits for a client service manager whose diagnoses include long COVID, a Florida federal judge concluded that it was not arbitrary and capricious for the insurer to determine that she had failed to prove that she remained eligible under the plan’s own-occupation definition of disability.
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October 23, 2026
SANTA ANA, Calif. — Finding that a claim for short-term disability (STD) benefits under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act accrued only upon the plaintiff’s receipt of the final denial that ended his administrative appeal — and so falls outside the scope of a settlement agreement — a California federal judge issued a minute in-chambers order granting summary judgment for the claimant on the STD plan’s affirmative defense of release.
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October 22, 2026
SEATTLE — A day after conducting a fairness hearing in a case that was among the many challenging a common use of forfeited nonvested matching retirement contributions, a Washington federal judge on Oct. 21 issued an order granting final approval of a settlement with an estimated value of $42,724,532 and approving the requested awards of $5,880,539 for attorney fees, $24,461 for litigation costs and $5,000 as a service award to the named plaintiff.
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October 22, 2026
SAN DIEGO — Issuing an unpublished order entering judgment against a claimant who challenged denial of her claim for partial disability benefits under a long-term disability (LTD) plan, a California federal judge said in part that the “safe harbor” regulation that exempts some programs from the Employee Retirement Income Security Act doesn’t apply because of the endorsement and consideration facts here.
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October 21, 2026
BALTIMORE — Issuing a mixed decision following a three-day bench trial, a Maryland federal judge ruled that an insurer breached the group long-term disability (LTD) policy at issue and owes the claimant $1,045,045.35 in actual damages plus 6% prejudgment interest but that a bad faith claim fails under Maryland law because the policy is not an individual one.
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October 21, 2026
SAN FRANCISCO — The parties in an Employee Retirement Income Security Act suit seeking millions in severance benefits for a putative class of former Twitter Inc. employees have reached an unspecified settlement in principle, they told a California federal court in a joint filing.
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October 21, 2026
AKRON, Ohio — Using the de novo standard of review because she concluded that the defendants’ decision on administrative review was two days late without good reason, an Ohio federal judge ruled that an individual who had started having seizures after a bike accident was entitled to retroactive long-term disability (LTD) benefits under a plan governed by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act that used an any-occupation definition of disability.
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October 20, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 19 asked retirees to respond to three certiorari petitions filed over two similar rulings that revived putative class suits on the grounds that the Employee Retirement Income Security Act requires the use of “reasonable” actuarial assumptions when calculating certain pension benefits.
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October 19, 2026
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Concluding that health plan participants are entitled to summary judgment on all six claims, a Missouri federal judge on Oct. 16 ordered damages briefing in the class action that is part of a wave of Employee Retirement Income Security Act challenges to health plan tobacco surcharges; he noted that the plaintiffs seek a total of $47,808,402.09 on five claims and $37,647,290.50 on the other claim and that the defendant argues that the second amount would constitute improper duplicative damages.
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October 19, 2026
BOSTON — Arguing in her opening brief that the trial court’s ruling presents “questions of first impression in this Circuit” concerning two amended regulatory requirements, a claimant asked the First Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to reinstate her long-term disability (LTD) benefits or direct the insurer to reconsider her claim.
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October 16, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A short bill that President Donald J. Trump signed into law on Oct. 15 amends the Employee Retirement Income Security Act to address the much-litigated question of what constitutes “adequate consideration” in employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) transactions.
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October 15, 2026
MINNEAPOLIS — Overruling the objections of a long-term disability (LTD) insurer, a Minnesota federal judge affirmed a magistrate judge’s order allowing discovery outside the administrative record for an Employee Retirement Income Security Act claim for equitable relief.
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October 14, 2026
SAN JOSE, Calif. — Granting a motion for partial reconsideration, a California federal magistrate judge awarded a former software engineer benefits under a voluntary short-term disability (STD) plan upon determining that the plan was subject to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.
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October 14, 2026
ATLANTA — Overruling the 1985 decision Mason v. Continental Group, Inc. and its progeny “to the extent they hold that” the Employee Retirement Income Security Act “requires exhaustion of statutory claims,” the en banc 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Oct. 13 reversed dismissal of an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) valuation case and remanded to the panel that initially decided the appeal “for any further proceedings that may be necessary.”
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October 13, 2026
SAN ANTONIO — On remand after the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that certain arbitration provisions at issue in an Employee Retirement Income Security Act case violate the effective vindication doctrine, a Texas federal judge held that those provisions are not severable under Texas law; the ruling means that the plan amendment that the defendants argued required arbitration of representative claims cannot be enforced as to those claims.
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October 13, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Declining to review a ruling concerning surcharge under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, the U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 13 denied a certiorari petition filed by participants in “top-hat” deferred compensation and retirement plans; in an amicus curiae brief filed at the high court’s request, the U.S. government opined that the surcharge issue was wrongly decided but that “this case’s idiosyncratic factual context makes it an unsuitable vehicle for clarifying the propriety of surcharge relief.”
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October 09, 2026
NEW ORLEANS — Saying in part that “the insolvency of a Plan sponsor, or a third party’s control of a sponsor’s receivables, does not excuse a fiduciary’s failure to remit employee contributions,” the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals issued an unpublished opinion affirming judgment “in all respects” against a pro se company owner who was ordered to pay damages of more than $260,000 in a suit the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) filed under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.
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October 09, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Ahead of the Oct. 9 U.S. Supreme Court conference for which their certiorari petition has been distributed, participants in “top hat” deferred compensation and retirement plans filed a response to the government’s amicus curiae brief that said “this case’s idiosyncratic factual context makes it an unsuitable vehicle for clarifying the propriety of surcharge relief” under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act even though the government viewed the challenged decision as erroneous.
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October 08, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a stipulated order a District of Columbia federal judge endorsed, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. (PBGC) and 22 terminated multiemployer pension plans said they agreed to an “expedited schedule” that resolves the plans’ motion for a preliminary injunction in the dispute over special financial assistance (SFA) funding.
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October 06, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral argument on Oct. 6 in an Employee Retirement Income Security Act case concerning whether fund underperformance claims must allege a “meaningful benchmark” to survive dismissal, with retirement plan participants arguing that the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals improperly imposed a categorical rule that prohibits a holistic analysis of the allegations and plan fiduciaries and amicus curiae the U.S. government contending that the Ninth Circuit correctly decided that an apples-to-apples comparison is necessary in such cases.
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October 06, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Retirees whose putative class actions were revived in a split Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals decision have waived their right to respond to separate certiorari petitions concerning that opinion, which ruled that the Employee Retirement Income Security Act “prohibits employers from using unreasonable, inappropriate actuarial assumptions” when calculating certain pension benefits.