On December 31, 2014, the court in Stapleton v. Advocate Health denied the defendants’ motion to dismiss holding that the church affiliated hospital pension plan at the heart of the case is subject to ERISA. Ruling in line with the courts in Rollins v. Dignity Health and Kaplan v. Saint Peter’s, the court here finds that … Continue reading Another Court Finds Church Affiliated Hospital Pension Plan Subject to ERISA
by Thomas E. Clark Jr. JD, LLM – April 1, 2014 Yesterday, March 31, 2014, the district court in Kaplan v. Saint Peter’s Healthcare System denied the hospital’s motion to dismiss and found as a matter of law that the hospital’s pension plan is NOT a church plan as defined by ERISA. This is the … Continue reading Court Finds St. Peter’s Pension Plan is NOT a Church Plan & A New Case is Filed in Chicago
by Thomas E. Clark, Jr. JD, LLM – March 18, 2014 The judge in Rollins v. Dignity Health has denied the hospital’s request to immediately appeal to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals the issue of whether the pension plan qualifies for the church plan exemption to ERISA. See our earlier post discussing the court’s … Continue reading Judge Denies Request for Immediate Appeal in Church Plan Case
Much has happened in the Church Plan litigation since our first post about it and our last post. At this point, motions to dismiss by the different defendants have been fully briefed in four cases and oral arguments have been held in 2 of those. None have yet been ruled on, however, in the Medina case … Continue reading An Update on the Church Plan Litigation
Case Highlights Status of the Case: This case is a sister case to four other similarly alleged cases: Overall v. Ascension Health Chavies v. Catholic Health East Rollins v. Dignity Health Kaplan v. Saint Peter’s Healthcare System Plaintiffs allege that the defined benefit pension plan sponsored by the defendant, a non-profit hospital conglomerate, is not … Continue reading Medina v. Catholic Health Initiatives