Court Opinion

ID: 9473393
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 04:28:42.451354+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:43:30.280491
License: Public Domain

REAL, District Judge,
dissenting:
I dissent.
The majority’s attempt to turn a general admonition to interpret the provisions of ERISA broadly to “protect interstate commerce and the interests of participants in employee benefit plans and their beneficiaries ... by providing for appropriate remedies, sanctions, and ready access to the Federal courts,” 29 U.S.C. § 1001(b), into a definition of “participant,” falls short of the mark. “Participant” is defined in clear language in § 1002(7) as “any employee or former employee of an employer, or any member or former member of an employee organization who is or may become eligible to receive a benefit of any type ...” (emphasis (emphasis added). No plaintiff here is an employee or former employee “who is or may become eligible to receive a benefit of any type.” That definition speaks in present or future eligibility language. Plaintiffs’ benefits were already vested and distributed to them before they brought suit. The plaintiffs cannot therefore qualify as “participants” authorized to bring suit, either under 29 U.S.C. § 1132(a)(1)(A) or § 1132(a)(2). See Freeman v. Jacques Orthopaedic & Joint Implant Surgery Medical Group, Inc., 721 F.2d 654 (9th Cir.1983); Nugent v. Jesuit High School of New Orleans, 625 F.2d 1285 (5th Cir.1980). We are therefore without jurisdiction and I would grant defendants’ motion to dismiss the appeal and remand to the District Court to permit that court to dismiss for want of subject matter jurisdiction.