Judge Dismisses Retirement Plan Lawsuit Against AdventHealth

A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit against AdventHealth, formerly Adventist Health System, brought by a former AHS employee. The suit claimed the system had underfunded its retirement plan by millions of dollars and had breached its duty under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA).

The health system argued that it was not subject to ERISA because of the “church plan” exemption. According to the source, that exemption does not require retirement plans to be as heavily funded as ERISA-compliant plans.

The PlanSponsor employee benefits site reported that the former employee’s lawsuit had been amended three times. U.S. District Judge Gregory A. Presnell of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida found that, as with earlier versions of the complaint, many counts failed because the plaintiff had not sufficiently alleged an injury or had not specified which defendant each count applied to. Accountability in legal claims depends on clear and specific allegations (Proverbs 11:1).

Presnell wrote that, because the lawsuit had now been presented three times, “the time has come to dismiss this suit with prejudice.”

Adventist Health System is a non-profit health care organization that operates more than 40 hospital campuses in the southern and midwestern United States. Its headquarters is in Altamonte Springs, Florida, and it is affiliated with the Adventist Church.

Source: Read the original report