No. 25-409

Sherry L. Miller v. Campbell Soup Company Retirement & Pension Plan Administrative Committee

Lower Court: Third Circuit
Docketed: 2025-10-06
Status: Rehearing
Type: Paid
Response WaivedRelisted (2)
Tags: disclosure-requirements erisa fiduciary-breach procedural-protections state-law-release welfare-benefits
Key Terms:
Arbitration ERISA Privacy JusticiabilityDoctri
Latest Conference: 2026-02-20 (distributed 2 times)
Question Presented (from Petition)

1. Whether ERISA permits fiduciaries to enforce a state-law general release as a condition of receiving welfare benefits, where the release bars plan-wide fiduciary breach claims under 29 U.S.C. § 1132, despite (A) fiduciaries' failure to disclose material misrepresentations that caused long-term harm to participants lacking actual knowledge, and (B) a structural conflict of interest in which the same agent adjudicated benefit claims and managed the release, extinguishing fiduciary breach claims. 29 U.S.C. §§ 1104, 1106, 1109, 1110, 1113, 1132, 1144.

2. Whether ERISA permits fiduciaries to enforce the written terms of a pension plan against participants when the plan's actual operations materially deviate from those terms in violation of ERISA's fiduciary and disclosure requirements. 29 U.S.C. §§ 1102, 1104.

3. Whether a court violates ERISA's procedural protections by dismissing a fiduciary breach claim as "moot" based on a general release without first determining whether material evidence undermines the release's validity or supports a substantive fiduciary breach, and thereby nullifying the totality-of-circumstances analysis that such evidence would have required. Fed. R. Civ. P. 8, 26, 56, 60.

Question Presented (AI Summary)

Whether ERISA permits fiduciaries to enforce a state-law general release as a condition of receiving welfare benefits, where the release bars plan-wide fiduciary breach claims under 29 U.S.C. § 1132, despite fiduciaries' failure to disclose material misrepresentations and a structural conflict of interest

Docket Entries

2026-01-14
DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 2/20/2026.
2025-12-04
2025-11-10
Petition DENIED.
2025-10-15
DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 11/7/2025.
2025-10-09
Waiver of Campbell Soup Company Retirement & Pension Plan Administrative Committee of right to respond submitted.
2025-10-09
Waiver of right of respondent Campbell Soup Company Retirement & Pension Plan Administrative Committee to respond filed.
2025-07-14
Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due November 5, 2025)
2025-06-04
Application (24A1189) granted by Justice Alito extending the time to file until July 12, 2025.
2025-05-28
Application (24A1189) to extend the time to file a petition for a writ of certiorari from June 12, 2025 to July 14, 2025, submitted to Justice Alito.

Attorneys

Campbell Soup Company Retirement & Pension Plan Administrative Committee
Michael Edward Kenneally Jr.Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP, Respondent
Sherry L. Miller
Sherry L. Miller — Petitioner