A federal district court in Florida sent a proposed ERISA breach of fiduciary duty class action to individual arbitration on the basis of a plan arbitration clause that allowed for individual relief and plan-wide injunctive relief. The case is Holmes v. Baptist Health South Florida, Inc., No. 21-cv-22986, 2022 WL 180638 (S.D. Fla. Jan. 20, 2022).
Plaintiffs, a proposed class of current and former Baptist Health employees, sued the nonprofit health care organization in the Southern District of Florida, alleging that defendants breached their fiduciary duties in their management and selection of investments for the organization's 403(b) retirement plan. In response, defendants invoked the plan's arbitration clause, which required individual arbitration of claims relating to the plan and prohibited individuals from receiving "remedial or equitable relief" that would provide "additional benefits or...
