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Peter Sessions

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Peter S. Sessions is a partner at Kantor & Kantor who has been with the firm since 2004. Peter represents individual clients seeking health, life, and disability benefits, typically under employee health plans.

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Browe v. CTC Corp., Nos. 19-677-CV, 19-813-CV, __ F.4th __, 2021 WL 4449878 (2d Cir. Sept. 29, 2021) (Before Circuit Judges Livingston, Lynch, and Bianco).

If you ever need to show someone a case to demonstrate how messy ERISA can be, you may want to consider this one. In this decision, the Second Circuit tackled a full buffet of ERISA issues, including statutes of limitations, “top hat” plan status, liability among fiduciaries, statutory penalties, and how to calculate and apportion remedies.

The trouble began when CTC Corporation, a Vermont photo-finishing company, decided to offer its employees a deferred compensation benefit plan in 1990. When the rise of digital photography obsoleted traditional film development, the company crumbled and so did the plan. CTC began using plan assets to fund the business in 2004, and eventually it was forced to cease doing business in 2014. This lawsuit, brought by several CTC employees against CTC and its managers, followed. The district court largely ruled for plaintiffs, but neither side was happy, and both appealed.
Continue Reading Pension Plan Participants Largely Prevail in a Kitchen Sink Appeal to the Second Circuit

This week we just couldn’t choose between two cases in which ERISA plan participants were told that they could not qualify for benefits, despite serious medical conditions documented by their doctors.

The first case, Ovist v. Unum Life Ins. Co. of Am., No. 20-1464, __ F.4th __, 2021 WL 4304547 (1st Cir. Sept. 22, 2021) (Before Circuit Judges Lynch and Selya, and District Judge Joseph N. Laplante), involved the denial of a claim for disability benefits.

Some disabilities are easier to identify and measure than others. In cases where the primary disabling symptoms include pain, weakness, or fatigue, insurers often battle with their insureds over whether those symptoms exist, and if so, how debilitating they are.
Continue Reading Downright Unreasonable: Two Circuits Uphold Benefit Denials

Smith v. Board of Directors of Triad Mfg., Inc., No. 20-2708, __ F.4th __, 2021 WL 4129456 (7th Cir. Sept. 10, 2021) (Before Circuit Judges Kanne, Brennan, and Scudder).

Arbitration is a hot issue in ERISA. Can claims for relief under ERISA be forced into arbitration, and if so, when? In this case the Seventh Circuit has good news and bad news for litigants on both sides.

The case is a putative class action brought by James Smith, an employee of Triad Manufacturing, Inc., alleging that in 2015 Triad and related defendants mismanaged Triad’s ERISA-governed employee stock ownership plan. Specifically, Smith alleged that three members of the board of directors created the plan and sold all of Triad’s stock to the plan, which then plummeted in value. The directors, however, profited from the transaction by providing loans to the plan that required repayment, regardless of Triad’s financial situation. In 2018, defendants amended the plan to include an arbitration provision with a class action waiver that prohibited claimants from seeking a remedy “which has the purpose or effect of providing additional benefits or monetary or other relief to any Eligible Employee, Participant or Beneficiary other than the Claimant.”
Continue Reading Arbitration Provision That Prevents Plan-Wide Relief Unenforceable