Thurber v. Aetna Life Insurance Company

Issue: (1) Whether an Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) plan may enforce an equitable lien by agreement under Section 502(a)(3) of ERISA where it has not identified a particular fund that is in the defendant’s possession and control at the time the Plan asserts its equitable lien; and (2) whether a discretionary clause in an ERISA plan mandating that an abuse-of-discretion standard of judicial review be applied to a Section 502(a)(1)(B) denial-of-benefits claim is enforceable when the clause was never disclosed to the participant in any plan document, as the Second Circuit held here, or whether the Plan must give participants and beneficiaries clear notice of such a clause, as the Seventh Circuit has required. CVSG: 10/07/2013.