Court Opinion

ID: 9495458
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 16:03:29.034874+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:57:02.004289
License: Public Domain

KOZINSKI, Circuit Judge,
concurring:
This ploy to dump workers on long-term disability violates ERISA for the reasons cogently explained in Judge Fletcher’s opinion, plus one more: It runs afoul of the “too clever by half’ doctrine. See, e.g., Foster v. Dalton, 71 F.3d 52, 56 (1st Cir.*10281995) (Selya, J.); Sisters of the Third Order of St. Francis v. SwedishAmerican Group Health Benefit Trust, 901 F.2d 1369, 1372-73 (7th Cir.1990) (Easterbrook, J.). Parties acting in concert can’t get away with what they couldn’t do separately. See Maj. Op. at 1023. The lawyers who papered this transaction should have advised against it, and the clients should have heeded the warning. One hopes, perhaps in vain, that future lawyers and clients will know better.