Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/19pdf/17-1712_0971.pdf
Page Number: 23.0

10 

THOLE v. U. S. BANK N. A. 

SOTOMAYOR, J., dissenting 

other  statutory  remedies.4    In  fact,  LaRue  confirmed  that 
ERISA beneficiaries like petitioners may sue fiduciaries for 
“ ‘any profit which would have accrued to the [plan] if there 
had  been  no  breach  of  trust,’ ”  552  U. S.,  at  254,  n. 4,  or 
where “fiduciary breaches . . . impair the value of plan as-
sets,” id., at 256.  Because petitioners bring those kinds of 
claims, LaRue supports their standing. 

B 

Second,  petitioners  have  standing  because  a  breach  of 
fiduciary  duty  is  a  cognizable  injury,  regardless  whether
that  breach  caused  financial  harm  or  increased  a  risk  of 
nonpayment. 

1 
A beneficiary has a concrete interest in a fiduciary’s loy-
alty and prudence.  For over a century, trust law has pro-
vided  that  breach  of  “a  fiduciary  or  trust  relation”  makes 
the trustee “suable in equity.”  Clews v. Jamieson, 182 U. S. 
461, 480–481 (1901).  That is because beneficiaries have an 
enforceable “right that the trustee shall perform the trust
in  accordance  with  the  directions  of  the  trust  instrument 
and  the  rules  of  equity.”    Bogert  &  Bogert  §861;  see  also
Restatement (Second) of Trusts §199 (trust beneficiary may
“maintain a suit” for breach of fiduciary duty).

That interest is concrete regardless whether the benefi-
ciary suffers personal financial loss.  A beneficiary may sue 
a trustee for restitution or disgorgement, remedies that rec-
ognize  the  relevant  harm  as  the  trustee’s  wrongful  gain. 
Through restitution law, trustees are “subject to liability” if 
they  are  unjustly  enriched  by  a  “ ‘violation  of  [a  benefi-
ciary]’s legally protected rights,’ ” like a breach of fiduciary 

—————— 

4 The Court expressly declined to address other relief like that provided 
under §1132(a)(3), see LaRue, 552 U. S., at 252, a provision that petition-
ers invoke here.