Burke v. The Boeing Company

Federal 7th Circuit Court
Civil Court
ERISA
Citation
Case Number: 
No. 20-3389
Decision Date: 
August 1, 2022
Federal District: 
N.D. Ill., E. Div.
Holding: 
Affirmed

Dist. Ct. did not err in granting defendants’ motion for summary judgment in plaintiffs (participants in defendant-company’s investment plan) action, alleging that defendants-plan committee, company and investment committee) violated ERISA by continuing to offer company stock as investment option for plaintiffs before and during time when value of stock dropped significantly after two airplane crashes led to worldwide grounding of company’s planes and halt to production of said airplanes. Plaintiff could not proceed against defendants-plan committee and company, based on claim that said defendants failed to disclose to plaintiffs and others insider information regarding design flaws of said airplanes, where record showed that said defendants did not have any fiduciary responsibilities over investment choices of company’s stock fund. Moreover, similar ruling applied to defendant-investment committee, where record showed that defendant-company delegated said fiduciary responsibility to said committee, but that said committee delegated fiduciary responsibility over investment choices to third-party fiduciary, whom plaintiffs did not sue. Ct. rejected plaintiffs’ claim that defendants’ duty of loyalty included non-delegable duty under ERISA to disclose non-public information to plan participants, especially where Ct. noted that prudent fiduciary could have readily concluded that immediate public disclosure of negative information about airplanes would have done more harm to value of company’s stock.