Lupp v. Mercy Health

Plaintiff brought this suit on behalf of all participants of the Mercy Health Partners Retirement Plan (the “Plan”).  Plaintiff alleges that the Plan was not operated in accordance with the Federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act (“ERISA”).  Plaintiff further claimed that Defendants, the fiduciaries of the Plan, are not entitled to rely on the ERISA exemption for “church plans” because Mercy Health, which established the Plan and maintains it, is neither a church nor a convocation of churches.  The Complaint was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio in March of 2016.

The Parties reached a proposed Settlement of the litigation on July 13, 2018, and the Court preliminarily approved the proposed settlement on August 8, 2018, and authorized Defendants to serve an approved “Notice of Settlement” on members of the Class.  On September 27, 2018, the Court authorized the issuance of a revised notice to a sub-set of class members who had not received the initial notice.

Following a hearing on Wednesday, November 28, 2018, the Court gave final approval to the Settlement, and approved the application for an award of attorneys’ fees and expenses to plaintiffs’ counsel and case contribution awards to the named plaintiffs who represented the class in the litigation.  Details of the Settlement, as well as other documents concerning the litigation, are attached below.

Attach:

• Lupp v Mercy Health COMPLAINT
• SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT
• MEMORANDUM OF LAW IN SUPPORT OF PRELIMINARY APPROVAL
• KINDALL DECLARATION IN SUPPORT OF PRELIMINARY APPROVAL
• SEROTA DECLARATION IN SUPPORT OF PRELIMINARY APPROVAL
• PRELIMINARY APPROVAL ORDER
• MERCY HEALTH NOTICE OF SETTLEMENT
• REVISED SETTLEMENT NOTICE
• MEMORANDUM OF LAW IN SUPPORT OF FINAL APPROVAL
• MEMORANDUM OF LAW IN SUPPORT OF AWARD OF ATTORNEYS’ FEES & EXPENSES & CASE CONTRIBUTION AWARDS
• KINDALL DECLARATION IN SUPPORT OF FINAL APPROVAL & AWARD OF ATTORNEYS’ FEES & EXPENSES & CASE CONTRIBUTION AWARDS
• ORDER & FINAL JUDGMENT