Cyr v. Reliance Standard Life Insurance

OPINION

CLIFTON, Circuit Judge:

We agreed to hear this case en banc in order to reconsider our precedent as to which parties may be sued as defendants in actions for benefits under 29 U.S.C. § 1132(a)(1)(B), part of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, better known as ERISA. Some of our previous decisions have indicated that only a benefit plan itself or the plan administrator of a benefit plan covered under ERISA is a proper defendant in a lawsuit under that provision. We conclude that the statute does not support that limitation, however, and that an entity other than the plan itself…