Plaintiffs must plead a “sound basis for comparison—a meaningful benchmark” — to sustain their claims of imprudent investment and excessive fee against a 401(k) plan, the federal appeals court in St. Louis has held, dismissing a class action lawsuit for breached of fiduciary duties under ERISA. Matousek v. MidAmerican Energy Co., No. 21-2749 (8th Cir. Oct. 12, 2022).
The U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Sixth and Seventh Circuits reached similar conclusions in dismissing cases before them. More than 200 class action lawsuits claiming imprudent investment and excessive fee against 401(k) plans have been filed around the country since January 2020.
Jackson Lewis attorneys Lindsey H. Chopin, Stacey C.S. Cerrone, and Howard Shapiro defended MidAmerican at the district court level, and Chopin argued the case before a three-judge panel in the Eighth Circuit on April 13, 2022.
The Eighth Circuit has jurisdiction over Arkansas, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota.
Filed in November 2020, the class action lawsuit challenged the management of MidAmerican’s $1.1 billion 401(k) defined contribution plan. It alleged that MidAmerican breached its fiduciary duties by charging excessive recordkeeping fees and offering expensive and poorly performing investments.
The district court dismissed the case with prejudice. Matousek v. MidAmerican Energy Co., No. 20-cv-352, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 150379 (S.D. Iowa July 2, 2021). It held, “Defendants...
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