147 F. Supp. 2d 95 - Mullins v. Pfizer, Inc.’s Empirical Analysis
2001
Citation profile
2 federal appellate · 4 district ·
Relationships
Applies 29 U.S.C. § 1002 (§ 3 of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974) · 29 U.S.C. § 1104 (§ 404 of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974)
Relies on Varity Corporation v. Howe · California v. Texas · Donovan v. Bierwirth · Bixler v. Central Pennsylvania Teamsters Health & Welfare Fund · Berlin v. Michigan Bell Telephone Co.
Most-quoted passages
The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 7 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[Fiduciary obligations attach to communications about future benefits, notwithstanding the fact that those communications relate to ‘new’ plans. The limitations on a fiduciary’s obligations contained in Pocchia do not serve to insulate [the defendant’s] conduct in this case from ERISA review, merely because the [early retirement program] was denominated a ‘new' plan. Accordingly, the Court rejects [the defendant’s] arguments that it had no fiduciary duties vis-a-vis potential participants in the [early retirement program].”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“A fiduciary cannot leave its front-line benefits counselors in the dark, or instruct them to give noncommittal and nonfactual responses to inquiries regarding potential benefit changes, if the information that is withheld is material to beneficiaries. Such a stance is inconsistent with the mandate that a fiduciary discharge its duties with the care, skill, prudence and diligence required by the statute.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“By establishing [HR] as the appropriate contact person for plaintiffs benefit inquiries, and then failing to provide her with complete and accurate information regarding [the company’s] future plans, [the company] induced [plaintiff] to rely upon [HR] and then purposefully closed [HR] off from the company’s deliberations.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.