Opinion ID: 1681928
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: petitioners' claims against tenneco

Text: We must now decide whether petitioners' state-law claim against Tenneco falls within the scope of section 1132(a)(1)(B), which enumerates the three types of ERISA claims that state courts may hear: 1) a claim to recover benefits due under the terms of the plan; 2) an action to enforce rights under the plan; or 3) an action to clarify rights to future benefits. 29 U.S.C. § 1132(a)(1)(B) (1988). If it does not, then a successful assertion of ERISA preemption would deprive state courts of subject-matter jurisdiction to hear the claim. Tenneco contends that petitioners are pursuing only a state common-law breach of fiduciary duty claim on appeal. A claim for breach of fiduciary duty that relates to the administration of an ERISA plan falls within the exclusive jurisdiction of the federal courts, and state courts therefore may not hear such claims. 29 U.S.C. § 1132(e)(1) (1988). If Tenneco is correct, its claims of ERISA preemption go to the subject-matter jurisdiction of the trial court and may therefore be raised for the first time on appeal. Petitioners alleged numerous causes of action against Tenneco, including a claim for breach of fiduciary duties under state law theories. In their petition, petitioners alleged that [b]y procuring insurance coverage for its employees, Tenneco, Inc. operated in the capacity of a fiduciary and an insurer for its employees. Petitioners also alleged that Tenneco assumed the duties of a fiduciary as to its employees generally. These allegations were followed by specific acts allegedly in breach of this fiduciary duty. Furthermore, in the court's charge the petitioners secured questions which asked the jury whether Tenneco had a fiduciary duty to them, whether any such duty was breached, and whether such breach was a proximate cause of any damage to them. And on appeal to this court, petitioners seek judgment on this ground to the exclusion of their other causes of action against Tenneco. Tenneco's objection that ERISA preempts petitioners' cause of action against them for breach of fiduciary duty must be heard by this court; it is jurisdictional in nature and cannot be waived. Since the petitioners' claim for breach of fiduciary duty relates to an employee benefit plan governed by ERISA and it is not a claim for benefits due under the policy or a suit to enforce rights under the policy, it falls within the exclusive jurisdiction of the federal courts. Thus, the trial court did not have jurisdiction to hear this claim because ERISA preempted subject-matter jurisdiction. See 29 U.S.C. §§ 1132(a)(1)(B), (e)(1); see also International Longshoremen, 476 U.S. at 397, 106 S.Ct. at 1915. We therefore agree with the opinion of the court of appeals insofar as it holds that petitioners' breach of fiduciary duty claim against Tenneco is preempted by ERISA.