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Employee Benefits Contract Interpretation

Proskauer - Employee Benefits & Executive...

Seventh Circuit: Agreement for Retiree Healthcare Benefits Survives Agreement’s Termination

The Seventh Circuit held that retirees and their families were entitled to lifetime healthcare benefits because, although the healthcare agreement that had been negotiated by their union had expired, it provided that covered...more

Robinson+Cole ERISA Claim Defense Blog

Ninth Circuit "Interprets" Accident Plan; "Direct and Sole Cause" Doesn't Mean What It Says

In Dowdy v. Metro. Life Ins. Co., 16-15824, 2018 U.S. App. Lexis 12648 (9th Cir. May 16, 2018), the Ninth Circuit ruled that an accident plan that covers “accidental injury that is the Direct and Sole Cause of a Covered Loss”...more

Robinson+Cole ERISA Claim Defense Blog

Fifth Circuit Joins Sister Circuits by Overruling Default Deferential Standard of Review

In Ariana M. v. Humana Health Plan of Tex., 2018 U.S. App. LEXIS 5227, *5, 2018 WL 1096980 (March 1, 2018) (“Ariana M. II”), a majority of judges of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, in an en banc decision,...more

Jackson Lewis P.C.

High Court Orders Sixth Circuit To Clean Up Its Retiree Health Benefits Case Law ‘Mess’

Jackson Lewis P.C. on

Collective bargaining agreements, including those that establish ERISA plans, should be interpreted according to ordinary principles of contract law, the U.S. Supreme Court has reaffirmed in a per curiam opinion. CNH...more

Miller Canfield

Supreme Court Reaffirms Rejection of Inferences in Retiree Health Benefit Dispute

Miller Canfield on

The U.S. Supreme Court has reversed a U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals decision holding that that former employees of CNH Industrial N.V. were entitled to lifetime, vested healthcare benefits. The opinion, issued yesterday,...more

Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart,...

Put It in the CBA: Supreme Court Once Again Finds Retiree Health Benefits Are Not Vested

On February 20, 2018, the Supreme Court of the United States tackled another controversy from the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals regarding whether retiree medical benefits enjoyed by individuals who retired while a collective...more

Proskauer - Employee Benefits & Executive...

Tackett Redux: Ordinary Principles of Contract Interpretation Mean No Inference of Vesting

In an opinion released yesterday, the Supreme Court reaffirmed that collective bargaining agreements (CBAs) must be interpreted according to “ordinary principles of contract law.” CNH Industrial N.V. v. Reese, No. 17-515,...more

BakerHostetler

Supreme Court Overrules Sixth Circuit (Again) In Class Action Dispute Over Retiree Medical Benefits

BakerHostetler on

Is Yard-Man really dead this time? This issue should never have arisen, the Supreme Court should not have had to address it in 2015, and it shouldn’t have required Supreme Court attention a second time just three years...more

Proskauer - Employee Benefits & Executive...

District Court Rules Johnson Controls Retirees Not Entitled to Lifetime Health Benefits

A district court in the Middle District of Pennsylvania held that, notwithstanding the Supreme Court’s decision in M & G Polymers USA, LLC v. Tackett, 135 S. Ct. 926 (2015), the Third Circuit’s rule that clear and express...more

Miller Canfield

U.S. Supreme Court Rebukes Reliance on Yard-Man In Retiree Health Benefit Dispute

Miller Canfield on

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Sixth Circuit’s reliance on retiree-friendly inferences set forth in UAW v. Yard-Man are incompatible with ordinary principles of contract interpretation and should not be used when...more

Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP

Supreme Court Decides M & G Polymers USA, LLC v. Tackett

On January 26, 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court decided M & G Polymers USA, LLC v. Tackett, No. 13-1010, holding that ordinary principles of contract law govern the interpretation of pension and insurance provisions of...more

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