Judge Hall upheld the magistrate judge’s findings that the bulk of Manning’s suit should be allowed to move forward, while ruling that the plaintiff’s breach of fiduciary duty claim should be tossed because fiduciaries can’t infringe on their duties under ERISA simply because they followed a pension plan’s documents.
After the ruling, the judge gave the parties 30 days to prepare and file a proposed scheduling order and a three-page letter from each detailing “what this case is about,” the parties’ positions in any disputes on the schedule, and a list of other issues to be addressed in a pending conference on the timetable.
E.I. du Pont is a subsidiary of Corteva Inc. — a company that produces agricultural chemicals — and exists separately from DuPont de Nemours Inc. as the result of a 2017 merger between EIDP and the Dow Chemical Co. DuPont de Nemours is not a defendant in either of the proposed class actions.
Counsel for the parties did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday.
