The United States District Court for the District of Alaska reconsidered its prior dismissal of state-law claims for professional negligence and negligent misrepresentation in Mabry v. ConocoPhillips Co., in which Renaker Hasselman Scott represents the plaintiff. In Mabry, the plaintiff alleges that the Plan Administrator of the ConocoPhillips Retirement Plan and its outside third-party administrator, Alight Solutions LLC, overstated his pension benefit for many years before his retirement. On July 6, 2021, the Court ordered that Mr. Mabry’s state-law claims can go forward based on the Ninth Circuit’s recent decision in Bafford v. Northrop Grumman Corp., which holds that such claims are not preempted by ERISA when brought against a non-fiduciary service provider to an ERISA plan.
Read the order here.