In a significant case brought under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (“ERISA”) and filed in the Maryland federal district court, we represent a plan participant whose retirement benefits were underpaid and who did not receive proper notice of a Plan amendment. The case is being brought as a class action. We sued both the Plan and Plan fiduciaries. The case is Wallace v. Freight Drivers Pension Fund. The Defendants attempted to get the case kicked out of court at the earliest possible moment and filed a motion to dismiss. They lost on several critical issues. The Maryland federal district court held that individual plan participants may file claims for ERISA statutory violations against Plan fiduciaries along with a claim for more retirement benefits and in the same lawsuit. The statute of limitations concerning the claims based on statutory violations, according to the Court, is based on federal and not state law. The Court also expressly ruled that plan participants may obtain monetary damages and equitable relief for statutory violations of ERISA when fiduciaries all breach their fiduciary duties. We will push this case forward. This is one of the several ERISA cases now being litigated by Lebau & Neuworth, LLC.
