The Ninth Circuit held that employees’ agreements to arbitrate all claims the employees may have did not extend to claims brought on behalf of two ERISA plans under ERISA § 502(a)(2). In so ruling, the Court explained that the employees could not agree to arbitrate claims on behalf of the plans in individual employment contracts because those employees cannot waive the plans’ rights. The Court also rejected an argument that the employees were, as a practical matter, seeking individual relief their own plan accounts because relief flows to the plans as a whole from a winning fiduciary breach claim, even when the plan is a defined contribution plan.
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