ERISA Lawyer

Kenney v. State Street Corp.

Shapiro Haber & Urmy was lead counsel prosecuting an ERISA class action on behalf of the participants in State Street Corporation’s Salary Savings Plan against State Street Corp. and the administrators of the Plan. Plaintiff alleges that State Street breached its fiduciary duties to the Plan participants by continuing to offer State Street stock as an investment option under the Plan, when the stock was overvalued and no longer a prudent investment alternative, and that defendants made material misrepresentations about the company’s foreign exchange trading revenue in communications with Plan participants who had invested in State Street stock. The case settled for $10 million. Kenney v. State Street Corp. (D. Mass.). 

Golden Star v. Mass Mutual Life Insurance

Shapiro Haber & Urmy also was as liaison counsel prosecuting an ERISA class action in the United State District Court for the District of Massachusetts on behalf of a plan administrator of a 401(k) Plan, against Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company arising out of MassMutual’s receipt of revenue sharing payments from the mutual funds on its platform as kickbacks and/or a “pay to play” scheme in connection with the placing, retaining and adding the mutual funds on the menu of available funds in its 401(a) and 401(k) programs. The case settled for $10 million. Golden Star, Inc. v. Mass Mutual Life Insurance Co., (D. Mass.). 

Aetna Life Insurance

Shapiro Haber & Urmy LLP’s litigated a class action under ERISA relating to Aetna’s Life Insurance Company’s improper denial of health insurance benefits in refusing to cover medical expenses incurred from the non-hospital use of a continuous passive motion machine prescribed by the plaintiff’s and class members’ health care professionals to treat knee injuries. In settlement, Shapiro Haber & Urmy obtained 56%of the amount of each claim for benefits for members of the settlement class. Jaggard v. Aetna Life Ins. Co. (D. Mass.). 

Michniewich v. Digital Equipment Corp.

Shapiro Haber & Urmy LLP litigated a class action under ERISA against Digital Equipment Corporation and John Hancock Life Insurance Company arising out of Digital’s decision to refund surplus life insurance premiums to current companyemployees but not to former company employees. Shapiro Haber & Urmy represented a class of former Digital Equipment employees who were participants in the life insurance plan, and who maintained that Digital Equipment had discriminated against its former employees who had paid excessive premiums under the life insurance plan. Shapiro Haber & Urmy LLP successfully settled and obtained a multimillion-dollar settlement for the class. Michniewich v. Digital Equipment Corp. (D. Mass.).

Fidelity Management and Trust Company 

Shapiro Haber & Urmy LLP was appointed co-lead counsel in the consolidated class action against Fidelity Management & Trust Co. in Massachusetts federal court on behalf of participants in 401(k) plans for Bank of America, EMC Corp. and Safety Insurance Co, and all those similarly situated.  The class action alleged that Fidelity misused the plans’ “float income” by temporarily investing it for its own benefit, in violation of the Employee Retirement Income Securities Act. The suits raise allegations that Fidelity and its subsidiaries generated extra income when plan assets were placed in interest-bearing accounts, pending investments or withdrawals of the assets. An article published by Law360 provides further information about the class action lawsuits. 

The cases were consolidated as In Re Fidelity ERISA Float Litigation, 1:13-cv-10222 in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts.

Xerox Retirement Plan Litigation

Shapiro Haber & Urmy LLP represents a former employee of Xerox Corp. who is seeking to represent a class of other similarly situated Xerox employees who participated in the Xerox Retirement Income Guarantee Plan (the "Plan"). The United States District Court for the Western District of New York has already ruled in favor of approximately 100 individual Xerox employees and held that the Plan administrators violated ERISA's anti-cutback rules (which makes it unlawful to reduce accrued pension benefits) when it calculated benefits for those plaintiffs under the Plan. Despite the Court's expectation that Xerox would apply its rulings to all similarly situated plan participants, Xerox has refused to do so. For that reason, Shapiro Haber & Urmy LLP has sought to intervene in the Frommert Action to obtain class-wide relief for all affected plan participants. The motion to intervene is currently pending.