{"id":10226,"date":"2010-05-24T10:52:35","date_gmt":"2010-05-24T15:52:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/?p=10226"},"modified":"2010-05-24T10:54:05","modified_gmt":"2010-05-24T15:54:05","slug":"erisa-supreme-court-attorney-fees-case-goes-way-of-plaintiffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/2010\/05\/erisa-supreme-court-attorney-fees-case-goes-way-of-plaintiffs\/","title":{"rendered":"ERISA Supreme Court Attorney Fees Case Goes Way of Plaintiffs"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"4United<\/a> For those who care about ERISA participants and beneficiaries being able to find good counsel for their claims, the U.S. Supreme Court decision this morning in Hardt v. Reliance Insurance Co.<\/em>, No. 09-448 (U.S. May 24, 2010) is welcome news.<\/p>\n

In a nearly unanimous opinion written by Justice Thomas (Justice Stevens wrote to concur in part), the Court held that:<\/p>\n

A fee claimant need not be a \u201cprevailing party\u201d to be eligible for an attorney\u2019s fees award under \u00a71132(g)(1) [Section 502(g)(1)]. Interpreting the section to require a party to attain that status is contrary to \u00a71132(g)(1)\u2019s plain text. The words \u201cprevailing party\u201d do not appear in the provision. Nor does anything else in \u00a71132(g)(1)\u2019s text purport to limit the availability of attorney\u2019s fees to a \u201cprevailing party.\u201d Instead, \u00a71132(g)(1) expressly grants district courts \u201cdiscretion\u201d to award attorney\u2019s fees \u201cto either party.\u201d (Emphasis added.) That language contrasts sharply with \u00a71132(g)(2), which governs the availability of attorney\u2019s fees in ERISA actions to recover delinquent employer contributions to a multiemployer plan. In such cases, only plaintiffs who obtain \u201ca judgment in favor of the plan\u201d may seek attorney\u2019s fees.\u00a71132(g)(2)(D). The contrast between these two paragraphs makes clear that Congress knows how to impose express limits on the availability of attorney\u2019s fees in ERISA cases. Because Congress failed to include in \u00a71132(g)(1) an express \u201cprevailing party\u201d requirement, the Fourth Circuit\u2019s decision adding that term of art to the statute more closely resembles \u201cinvent[ing] a statute rather than interpret[ing] one.\u201d Pasquantino v. United States, 544 U. S. 349, 359.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The case is interesting because it poses a common legal issue in ERISA litigation.\u00a0 The court, after pointing out problems with a plan administrator’s interpretation of plan terms, remands the case back to the company and the company ends up awarding the initially requested benefits to the employee.<\/p>\n

Employees in this type of situation generally file a motion under Section 502(g), a fee-shifting statute that applies in most ERISA lawsuits and provides that \u201cthe court in its discretion may allow a reasonable attorney\u2019s fee and costs . . . to either party.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, a court may award fees and costs under \u00a71132(g)(1), as long as the fee claimant has achieved \u201csome degree of success on the merits.\u201d Ruckelshaus v. Sierra Club, 463 U. S. 680, 694.<\/p>\n

Nice way to start the work week.<\/p>\n

Hat Tip: Mark DeBofsky<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For those who care about ERISA participants and beneficiaries being able to find good counsel for their claims, the U.S. Supreme Court decision this morning in Hardt v. Reliance Insurance Co., No. 09-448 (U.S. May 24, 2010) is welcome news. In a nearly unanimous opinion written by Justice Thomas (Justice Stevens wrote to concur in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[33,24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-labor-employment-law","category-us-supreme-court","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10226","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10226"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10226\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}