Happy MLK Day!  In honor of this American civil rights hero, I want to share one of his famous quotes that has been resonating with me as of late:  If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.

Today’s ERISA Watch is out on the late side since the kids were home with me all day from school and I just couldn’t get them to help me with the summaries.  We did see Paddington 2, however, but I won’t issue any spoiler alerts.  Hopefully these summaries make for good bedtime reading. Continue Reading Court Denies Insurer Equitable Trust over Erroneously Paid Life Insurance Benefits Since It Seeks Unavailable “Legal” Relief

This week’s notable decision is from the land of ERISA preemption:  Allied Constr. Indus. v. City of Cincinnati, No. 16-4248, __F.3d__, 2018 WL 283775 (6th Cir. Jan. 4, 2018).  The City of Cincinnati and Laborers International Union of North America, Local 265 appealed the district court’s decision that three City ordinance provisions concerning bidder specifications for certain City projects were preempted by ERISA. The Sixth Circuit reversed the district court and held that the City was acting as a market participant in enacting the Ordinance, and therefore these provisions are not preempted by ERISA.  

By way of background, in Bldg. & Constr. Trades Council of the Metro. Dist. v. Associated Builders & Contractors of Mass./R.I., Inc., 507 U.S. 218, 113 S.Ct. 1190, 122 L.Ed.2d 565 (1993) (“Boston Harbor”), the Supreme Court determined that a state agency’s bidding specifications for selecting contractors for the state-funded clean-up of the Boston Harbor was not preempted by the NLRA because the state acted as a proprietor rather than a regulator in imposing the requirement.  In this case, the City argued that the market-participant doctrine set forth in Boston Harbor should be applied to ERISA.   Continue Reading Sixth Circuit Adopts Boston Harbor Market-Participation Doctrine to ERISA Preemption