Inland Fresh Seafood Workers See Stock Plan Lawsuit Dismissed

A lawsuit by Inland Fresh Seafood Corp. of America Inc. workers who say they were forced to overpay for stock in their company was dismissed because the workers didn’t exhaust their internal remedies before going to court.

The “law is clear” that federal courts within the Eleventh Circuit—those in Alabama, Florida, and Georgia—require benefit plan participants to first complete their plan’s internal claims procedures before they can sue under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, Judge Leigh Martin May said. The exhaustion requirement applies to both claims for benefits and lawsuits like this one, which allege violations of ERISA itself, ...