Stapleton v. Advocate Health Care Network

The Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), 29 U.S.C. 1001, sets minimum funding and vesting requirements, insures benefits through the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation and includes reporting, disclosures, and fiduciary responsibilities, but exempts church plans from its requirements. The plaintiffs, former and current employees, have vested claims to benefits under the Advocate retirement plan. Advocate operates Illinois healthcare locations, employing 33,000 people. Advocate maintains a non-contributory, defined-benefit pension plan that covers substantially all of its employees. Advocate is not a church. Its predecessor formed as a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation from a merger between two health systems—Lutheran General and Evangelical. Advocate is affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church and the United Church of Christ, but it is not owned or financially supported by either church. In contracts, the parties “affirm their ministry in health care and the covenantal relationship they share.” There is no requirement that Advocate employees or patients belong to any particular religious denomination, or uphold any particular beliefs. The Seventh Circuit affirmed that the plan “is not entitled to ERISA’s church plan exemption as a matter of law” because the statutory definition requires a church plan to be established by a church. The court rejected Advocate’s First Amendment arguments. View "Stapleton v. Advocate Health Care Network" on Justia Law