Groom principal and co-chair of the firm’s litigation group, William Delany, spoke with Law360 about recent ERISA litigation activity in the article “4 Big ERISA Litigation Developments from 2025’s 2nd Half.”
Delany’s comments focused on the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit decision in Bolton et al. v. Inland Fresh Seafood Corp. of America Inc. et al., in which a unanimous three-judge panel affirmed and remanded the district court’s dismissal of a proposed ERISA class action lawsuit that alleged mismanagement of the company’s employee stock ownership plan (“ESOP”). The appellate decision, written by a district court judge sitting by designation, upheld the lower court’s application of the Circuit’s requirement that claimants exhaust administrative remedies before bringing suit in federal court. However, the two appellate judges on the panel issued a concurrence “urg[ing] the full court to reconsider the case en banc and overturn its strictest-in-the nation standard on administrative exhaustion.”
Delany observed that this decision is “‘an interesting one’” and that “he’s watching to see if the full Eleventh Circuit takes up the case.” He further commented that “a change in the Eleventh Circuit’s standard could ultimately impact ‘the amount of input that a plan administrator has over people that are challenging the operation of the benefit plan that the employer voluntarily bestowed on its workforce.’”
To read the article, click here.
