Angel L. Garrett

The Importance of Including Exhaustion Requirements in Plan Documents: Taking a Closer Look at the Sixth Circuit’s Decision in Wallace v. Oakwood Healthcare, Inc.

 ANGEL L. GARRETT, August 27, 2020  A recent decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit reminds plan fiduciaries once again of the importance of including claims and appeals procedures and administrative exhaustion language in their plans. See Wallace v. Oakwood Healthcare, Inc., 954 F.3d 879 (6th Cir. 2020). Often, plan fiduciaries […]

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Defined Benefit Plan Actuarial Equivalence Litigation — A Formidable Threat or An Unfounded Theory?

ANGEL L. GARRETT and BRYAN J. CARD, August, 2019    A new wave of putative class-action lawsuits filed under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) has emerged onto the scene alleging that companies are using outdated mortality tables from the 1970s and 1980s in calculating alternative forms of benefits under defined benefit […]

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The Saga Continues: An Update on University Plan Lawsuits with NYU’s Victory at Trial

ANGEL L. GARRETT and EMILY L. GARCIA, October, 2018   In January 2017, we informed you that fiduciaries of 12 university retirement plans had recently been hit with lawsuitsalleging defendants breached their fiduciary duties to their 403(b) retirement plans by offering what plaintiffs described as overly expensive, poorly performing funds, and/or by allowing their plans to […]

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New Section 83(i) of the Internal Revenue Code — Qualified Equity Grant Programs Permit Employees to Elect to Defer Income Taxes on Stock Options or RSUs

J. MARC FOSSE and ANGEL L. GARRETT, January 11, 2018   New section 83(i) of the Internal Revenue Code (the “Code”) permits eligible private corporations1 to adopt qualified equity grant plans for issuing stock options or restricted stock units (RSUs) to eligible employees to obtain “qualified stock” (as defined below) in exchange for the performance […]

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Case Update: Ninth Circuit Revisits Tibble v. Edison International

ANGEL L. GARRETT, April 2016 – As we previously reported, on May 18, 2015, the Supreme Court issued a unanimous decision in favor of the plan participants in Tibble v. Edison International, 135 S. Ct. 1823 (2015).  In October 2014, the Supreme Court granted the plaintiffs’ petition for writ of certiorari to solely address whether […]

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Buyers Beware!  Ninth Circuit Holds that a Company May Be Subject to Withdrawal Liability as a Successor Employer under the “Successorship Doctrine”

ANGEL L. GARRETT and ALYSSA OHANIAN, October 2015 — On September 11, 2015, the Ninth Circuit, in Resilient Floor Covering Pension Trust Fund Board of Trustees v. Michael’s Floor Covering, Inc., Case No. 12-17675, 2015 WL 5295091, joined the Seventh Circuit in holding that an employer may be subject to withdrawal liability as a successor […]

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