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Statutory Claims in the Eleventh Circuit: The Beginning of the End for Exhaustion?

"The plaintiffs contend that the defendants caused the plan to overpay for the stock by tens of millions of dollars ... [and] sought equitable relief ... [P]laintiffs contended that [1] they had no obligation to exhaust the plan's internal appeals, and [2] assuming such an obligation existed, they should be excused from that requirement.... The Eleventh Circuit began by acknowledging that while '[a]ll circuits require exhaustion in the ERISA context,' the Eleventh Circuit was special. 'Where we diverge is in our application of the exhaustion requirement to statutory violation claims.' " [Bolton v. Inland Fresh Seafood Corp. of Am., Inc., No. 24-10084 (11th Cir. Oct. 15, 2025)]

Seventh Circuit Sticks to the Text in Interpreting ERISA’s Withdrawal Liability Rules

"The Seventh Circuit rejected SuperValu’s contention that the MPPAA required a fund to “deduct contribution units for asset sales qualifying under safe-harbor § 4204 for the full ten-year lookback period.” In fact, the court observed that the MPPAA’s payment-schedule statute does not refer to the safe-harbor statute at all, and thus SuperValu could not smuggle those provisions in to reduce its payments." [SuperValu, Inc. v. United Food & Com. Workers Unions & Emps. Midwest Pension Fund, No. 24-2486 (7th Cir. Oct. 9, 2025)]

District Court Rules Retirees Have Standing to Challenge Bristol-Myers Pension Risk Transfer

"Defendants contended that plaintiffs have not missed a benefit and thus they have suffered no harm from the PRT.... The court further identified a separate basis for Article III standing, which was that the PRT diminished the value of their benefits. This was because 'the Athene transaction ejected Plaintiffs from the ambit of ERISA.' " [Doherty v. Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., No. 24-6628 (S.D.N.Y., Sep. 29, 2025)]

Third Circuit Upholds PBGC Regs and Tells Trucking Company a Deal's a Deal

"The appellate court agreed with the bankruptcy court that the relevant language in MPPAA permitted the two plans to enforce their contract with Yellow and demand liability at the contractually-bargained-for rate, despite that rate being higher than Yellow's actual contributions at the time." [In re Yellow Corp., No. 25-1421 (3d Cir. Sep. 16, 2025)]

Eleventh Circuit Rules That 'Top Hat' Plan Termination Short-Changed Employees

"The court acknowledged that NCR's offering of a lump sum to replace the plan-prescribed annuities was not by itself wrongful.... However, just because NCR could pay a lump sum did not mean that its payments were automatically adequate.... The Eleventh Circuit agreed with the district court that the payments constituted a breach of the plan terms because they 'adversely affect[ed]' the 'accrued benefits' (i.e., the life annuities) of 'any' participant. The word 'any' was key; a lump sum would violate the plan if it 'led to a reduction in the amount of the life annuity of even a single participant.' " [Hoak v. Ledford, No. 24-12148 (11th Cir. Aug. 26, 2025)]

Second Circuit Tightens Standing Rules for Breach of Fiduciary Duty Class Actions

"[T]he Second Circuit agreed with the district court that plaintiffs lacked constitutional and class standing to assert several of their claims because they did not adequately plead that they had suffered individual harm caused by defendants' imprudence or disloyal management.... The Second Circuit also rejected plaintiffs' argument that because they had made allegations supporting a breach of fiduciary duty with respect to some plan processes, the court should conclude that defendants employed a flawed process in general." [Collins v. Northeast Grocery, Inc., No. 24-2339 (2d Cir. Aug. 18, 2025)]

Second Circuit Rules Disability Claimant Didn't Waive Her Right to Sue for Benefits

"[T]he Second Circuit ruled that no reasonable jury 'could conclude that Schuyler actually believed that she was waiving her claim for LTD benefits from Sun Life when she signed the agreement,' and thus she 'didn't knowingly and voluntarily waive her right to pursue her LTD against Sun Life.' The court therefore reversed the judgment below and remanded for further proceedings." [Schuyler v. Sun Life Assurance Co. of Canada, No. 23-498 (2d Cir. Aug. 14, 2025)]

Ninth Circuit Joins Sister Circuits in Applying Effective Vindication Doctrine to Invalidate Health Plan's Arbitration Provision

"[Platt] filed suit against Sodexo, alleging that its imposition of a monthly tobacco surcharge on his employee health insurance premiums violated ERISA.... Sodexo moved to compel arbitration based on a provision that it had unilaterally added to the plan in 2021.... [T]he plan's arbitration provision contained a representative action waiver ... Because this provision precluded Platt from obtaining plan-wide relief explicitly authorized by ERISA, it prevented him from 'effectively vindicating' his rights under ERISA, and thus it was unenforceable." [Platt v. Sodexo, S.A., No. 23-55737 (9th Cir. Aug. 4, 2025)]

Sixth Circuit Joins Fourth Circuit in Rejecting Surcharge as Equitable Remedy

"The Sixth Circuit was called upon to answer two questions: [1] whether ERISA preempts the managers' state law contract-based claims; and [2] whether ERISA Section 502(a)(3) ... allows them to seek the value of their lost claims in the form of equitable surcharge. It answered yes to the former question and no to the latter." [Aldridge v. Regions Bank, No. 24-5603 (6th Cir. Jul. 17, 2025)]

Tenth Circuit Rejects Claim for Pre-Litigation Attorney’s Fees

"[T]he Tenth Circuit agreed with the Ninth Circuit's ultimate decision in Castillo, which was that attorney's fees are not available under Section 1132(a)(3) as a form of equitable relief. The Tenth Circuit ruled that because ERISA explicitly addresses the availability of fees in Section 1132(g), it is improper to apply other provisions in ERISA, such as Section 1132(a)(3), to award the same relief." [Stark v. Reliance Standard Life Ins. Co., No. 24-6137 (10th Cir. July 8, 2025)]