Opinion ID: 458539
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: breach of cofiduciary

Text: 29 ERISA provides that a fiduciary may also be liable for another fiduciary's breaches. 29 U.S.C. Sec. 1105(a). Appellants allege that Schoen and Gibbons are liable as co-fiduciaries by knowingly participating in or knowingly concealing the acts and omissions of NS & T. Schoen serves as Administrator of the Plan and is a fiduciary of the Plan. (We note that Schoen was also one of the initial Trustees of the Plan. The statute has long since run on any violations that he may have committed while in that role.) Whether Gibbons may be said to have acted as a fiduciary is a disputed issue. Additionally, a district court may award relief against nonfiduciaries who knowingly participate in a breach of trust. Freund v. Marshall & Ilsley Bank, 485 F.Supp. 629 (W.D.Wis.1979). 30 Schoen and Gibbons may therefore be liable for all breaches of fiduciary duty for which NS & T is liable. For those claims against NS & T which are not time-barred, allegations that Schoen and Gibbons may also be liable as cofiduciaries are similarly not time-barred. We therefore remand to the District Court the question of liability of Schoen and Gibbons as cofiduciaries.