Jackson v. E.J. Brach Corporation, 1999 U.S. App. LEXIS 8509 (7th Cir May 5, 1999)-Before Posner, Chief Judge, and Coffey and Kanne, Circuit Judges.
Court affirmed dismissal of ERISA claims related to Defendant's failure to provide summary plan description or notice of material modifications to plaintiff.
Plaintiff had standing to sue for failure to provide documents. Plaintiff claimed that he was entitled to benefits, even though he did not sign the required release, since Plaintiff claimed that Defendant never notified Plaintiff that it amended the plan to require the release.
Court determined that Defendant's concealment of the change does not entitle Plaintiff to monetary relief. Under ERISA, technical violations do not create a right to monetary relief. Monetary relief is available only "in exceptional cases." See Kreutzer v. A.O. Smith Corp., 951 F.2d 739, 743 (7th Cir. 1991). Thus, to obtain monetary damages, a plaintiff must establish that "the employer . . . acted in bad faith, actively concealed the benefit plan, or otherwise prejudiced their employees by inducing their reliance on a faulty plan summary before recovery for procedural violations is warranted." Id.
Decision does not affect the lower court's granting of penalties under 29 U.S.C. § 1132(c)(1).
