Veterinary Hospital Faces Allegations in Recent ERISA Lawsuit

Plaintiffs filed an ERISA (Employee Retirement Income Security Act) lawsuit naming a veterinary hospital network (VCA, Inc.) and a number of retirement plan administrators and compensation committees in the company’s leadership as defendants.

The Case: Brain Smith, Jacqueline Mooney, Angela Bakanas, and Matthew Colon v. VCA Inc., and the plan committee for the VCA, INC. Salary Savings Plan, etc.

The Court: U.S. District Court for the Central District of California

The Case No.: 2:21-cv-09140-CAS-AGR

The Plaintiff: Smith, Mooney, & Colon

The plaintiffs in the case claim that the fiduciaries of VCA’s retirement savings plan failed to adequately monitor the retirement plan service fees and as a result, authorized the plan to pay unreasonable and excessive fees relative to the services received.

The Defendant: VCA Inc. and plan committee for their Salary Savings Plan

The retirement plan at issue is VCA, Inc.’s Salary Savings Plan. According to the suit, the specified retirement plan has close to 12,000 participants. Participants hold over $563 million in net assets as of the end of 2019. The plaintiffs claim that the plan fiduciaries failed to leverage the plan’s significant bargaining power to benefit the plan participants and their designated beneficiaries.

Summary of the Case: Brain Smith, Jacqueline Mooney, Angela Bakanas, and Matthew Colon v. VCA Inc., and the planning committee for the VCA, INC. Salary Savings Plan, etc.

According to the lawsuit, the plan paid as much as $105 per participant each year for retirement plan recordkeeping and administration services. The plaintiffs argue that a reasonable retirement plan service fee for a plan of this magnitude averages closer to $38 per plan participant annually. Similar claims have been filed against other midsize to large employers across the United States throughout the last several years. Similar claims have met with varying degrees of success - each depending on the details and facts of the particular case. In a general sense, the success of an ERISA suit is tied to the plaintiffs’ ability to demonstrate that the payment of excessive fees or inclusion of underperforming investments was likely due to fiduciary breaches. Simply stating that the service fees paid by a plan are higher than average or showing that investments underperformed other investment options that were overlooked is not enough to establish an ERISA claim in court.

If you have questions about California employment law or if you need help establishing an ERISA claim, please get in touch with Blumenthal Nordrehaug Bhowmik DeBlouw LLP. Experienced employment law attorneys are ready to assist you in various law firm offices located in San Diego, San Francisco, Sacramento, Los Angeles, Riverside, and Chicago.