Although an employer argued its method of calculating benefits for retirees electing joint and survivor annuities under its defined benefit retirement plan was reasonable under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, testimony from the plaintiff’s expert witness about the appropriate ...

Tagged with: Judge Douglas E. Miller Judge Rebecca Beach Smith Labor U.S. District Court - Eastern District

A union’s claim against its former business manager under § 501(a) of the Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act, or LMRDA, is subject to the two-year statute of limitations applicable to breach of fiduciary duty claims under Virginia law. This ...

Tagged with: Judge David J. Novak Labor U.S. District Court - Eastern District

Volvo’s change in legal position as to whether its direct payments to union employees under a collective bargaining agreement violate the Labor Management Relations Act, or LMRA, does not give rise to a case or controversy warranting court intervention as ...

Tagged with: Judge Elizabeth K. Dillon Labor U.S. District Court - Western District

In a case involving an ERISA-covered plan, the parties’ briefs on the motion to dismiss assumed that Virginia law applies to the corporate veil piercing claim. Supplemental briefing was ordered on whether the federal common-law standard should instead apply, and ...

Tagged with: Judge M. Hannah Lauck Labor U.S. District Court - Eastern District

The Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 preempts a suit contesting a multimillion-dollar withdrawal liability owed to the trade association that offers the pension plan because the claims challenge the plan’s terms as violative of ERISA. The plaintiffs could ...

Tagged with: Judge T.S. Ellis III Labor U.S. District Court - Eastern District

Whether a spouse who died lacked the mental capacity to enter into a marriage could not be challenged because under Virginia law, even assuming a decedent was mentally handicapped, the marriage could not be collaterally attacked after one spouse’s death. ...

Tagged with: Judge Henry Coke Morgan Jr. Labor U.S. District Court - Eastern District

Although a restaurant worker accepted an offer of judgment of $6,500 just six weeks after he filed his complaint for nonpayment of overtime wages, the time incurred by his attorneys was reasonable, as were their rates of $495 and $460 ...

Tagged with: Judge Claude M. Hilton Labor U.S. District Court - Eastern District

A bank’s post-judgment argument that the Secretary of Labor could not seek damages on behalf of an employee stock ownership plan, or ESOP, was contrary to the plain language of the statute and controlling precedent. Background The Secretary of Labor ...

Tagged with: Judge Norman K. Moon Labor U.S. District Court - Western District

After almost two years of litigation between a scaffolding company and its employees, a settlement was proposed. Because the agreement would give the named and opt-in plaintiffs the majority of their claimed overtime pay, there was no suggestion of collusion ...

Tagged with: Judge Rebecca Beach Smith Labor U.S. District Court - Eastern District

Where current and former employees suing Macado’s restaurants satisfied their relatively relaxed burden to show the putative class is “similarly situated,” the class was conditionally certified and notice must be provided to the putative class members. Background Plaintiffs, who are ...

Tagged with: Judge Norman K. Moon Labor U.S. District Court - Western District