WASHINGTON, DC – November 7, 2022 – The ERISA Industry Committee (ERIC) today continued its fight to defend employer plan sponsors from a growing wave of ERISA class-action complaints designed to extract costly and unjustified settlements from plans.
ERIC, which represents large employers that sponsor health and retirement plans for nationwide workforces, joined with coalition partners to file a motion for leave to file an amicus brief refuting claims of fiduciary breach with respect to plan fees brought against a plan sponsor in Matney, et al v. Barrick Gold of North America, et al, 22-04045 (10th Cir.), that were dismissed by a district court. This case is one of over 200 similar lawsuits brought in recent years against employer plan sponsors in nearly every industry and generating exorbitant legal costs.
“These complaints often rely on hindsight and inapt comparisons to argue that plan fiduciaries failed to meet their legal duties in selecting the funds that they offer,” said James Gelfand, President of ERIC. “It is critical that federal courts bring a swift conclusion to these claims and the detrimental costs they impose on benefit plans and participants.”
Specifically, the brief filed by ERIC and coalition groups argues that:
- ERISA encourages the creation of benefit plans by affording flexibility and discretion to plan sponsors and fiduciaries
- The complaint relies on indirect allegations of wrongdoing based on inference and circumstantial facts
- The complaint relies on allegations that closely resemble those rejected as implausible in previous litigation controlling the applicable pleading standard here
- Allowing hindsight-based challenges to discretionary fiduciary decisions to proceed would encourage the spread of similarly meritless and counterproductive lawsuits
To read the coalition amicus brief filed in Matney v. Barrick Gold of North America, visit ERIC’s website here.
“ERIC remains committed to defeating the unsubstantiated legal claims that plan sponsors continue to face and defending employers’ ability to design and administer retirement benefits for tens of millions of Americans,” Gelfand added.