Pension Protection Act Blog

Yesterday, in In re Marriage Cases, No. S147999 (May 15, 2008), the California Supreme Court addressed the issue of whether domestic partnership is the same as marriage. As framed by the Court, the issue they addressed in this decision is:
“Accordingly, the legal issue we must resolve is not whether it would be constitutionally permissible […]

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Tucked away toward the end of the Pension Protection Act are two sections which made changes to Railroad Retirement. Section 1002 and Section 1003 both became effective on August 17, 2007, one year after the date PPA was enacted. Section 1002 is Entitlement of Divorced Spouses to Railroad Retirement Annuities Independent of Actual […]

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Fast on the heels of LaRue and MetLife, the U.S. Supreme Court is taking a look at another ERISA case - Kennedy v. Plan Administrators for DuPont Savings and Investment Plan, No. 07-636. The Petitioner, the estate of the participant, is required to file their merit brief today with the Court.
Kennedy is a case […]

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Today, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral argument in Metropolitan Life Ins. Co. v. Glenn, No. 06-923. MetLife v. Glenn is a case from the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals about conflicts of interest for ERISA administrators. The 6th Circuit reversed the judgment of the district court that MetLife’s decision finding Glenn no […]

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ERISA is a different statute, in a different title of the United States Code. Plaintiffs seek to use ERISA to recover for events that as a result of PSLRA could not support an action on behalf of shareholders at large.

- Judge Easterbrook

With the ink barely dry on the Supreme Court’s opinion in LaRue v. […]

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CNN is reporting that Wal-Mart has decided to not pursue reimbursement for medical expenses paid by the Walmart Stores, Inc. Associates Health and Welfare Plan for Deborah Shank. I previously blogged about this case here. (hat tip to Paul Secunda of the Workplace Prof blog).
Deborah Shank was the former Walmart employee who […]

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Common language contained somewhere in most qualified plan documents is the definition of spouse. Within that definition can be the requirement that a participant must be married for a period of one year before the spouse is recognized by the plan as the participant’s spouse. In a recent case from the 5th Circuit […]

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The U.S. Supreme Court has denied Rohm & Haas’ petition for writ of certiorari. On theOrder List for March 17th, the Court stated:

“07-906 ROHM AND HAAS PENSION V. WILLIAMS, GARY
The motion of Chamber of Commerce of the United States of
America for leave to file a brief as amicus curiae is granted.
The motion of National […]

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To be ERISA-qualified, a plan must: (1) exist;

5th Circuit Court of Appeals, Per Curium, Read v. Sun Life Assurance, No. 07-10945, March 7, 2008.

In an interesting opinion from the 5th Circuit in Read v. Sun Life Assur. Co. of Canada, No. 07-10945 (5th Cir., March 7, 2008), the Court held that the […]

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In a year of great upheaval in plan documents due to regulatory and legislative changes, the third branch of government has decided to join in and add to the ERISA stress factor. This year, the U.S. Supreme Court has already decided LaRue, has MetLife coming up on the oral argument calendar in April, and […]

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