Feds Tell Justices to Skip Putnam 401(k) Case Over ERISA Losses

U.S. Solicitor General Noel J. Francisco told the U.S. Supreme Court it shouldn’t hear a class action challenging the affiliated mutual funds in Putnam Investments LLC’s 401(k) plan, in part because of the case’s “unusual midtrial posture.”

The First Circuit’s 2018 decision reviving the lawsuit correctly decided the two questions Putnam asked the Supreme Court to resolve, Francisco told the justices. And the case’s unusual posture—in which the First Circuit reviewed a court order issued midway through a non-jury trial—makes the dispute a poor vehicle for resolving an unsettled question about burdens of proof under the Employee Retirement Income Security ...