Opinion ID: 815292
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Trust Law and ERISA

Text: Appellants also assert that they have standing to sue on the Pension Plan claims because [t]rust law has long-recognized that a beneficiary has standing to sue the trustee for breach of the duty of loyalty even if the beneficiary does not claim the trustee’s breach caused pecuniary harm to the trust. Appellant’s Br. at 69. They argue that trust law extends to this context because ERISA embodies these [trust] principles. Id. at 70. However, Appellants provide no authority for the proposition that trust law principles extend to the ERISA context to confer Article III standing on Appellants to permit them to sue on behalf of a defined benefit pension plan where the plan is overfunded when the claims are filed and any surplus funding will revert to the plan only. We find no basis to hold that it does.