AT&T Beats Penalties Bid Over Benefit Plan Document Production

AT&T Inc. on Thursday defeated a Fifth Circuit appeal saying it wrongly failed to produce benefit plan documents in connection with litigation over a $450,000 medical bill stemming from a retiree’s car accident.

District courts have discretion to assess penalties under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, and they don’t abuse that discretion by denying penalties when there’s no evidence of bad faith or prejudice, the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit said in an unpublished opinion.

The decision is a loss for William Collins Jones IV, whose mother was receiving retiree medical coverage from AT&T when ...