Musk’s Win in Twitter Severance Suit Appealed to Ninth Circuit

Laid-off Twitter employees who say they’re owed severance payments after Elon Musk’s takeover of the company asked the Ninth Circuit to reverse a decision they say “unilaterally redefined” the company’s benefit plan to exclude it from federal legal protections.

Twitter sponsored a severance plan that’s governed by the “notoriously broad” Employee Retirement Income Security Act, and a California federal judge’s decision to the contrary overlooked the plan’s ongoing administrative scheme and improperly concluded the plan had been amended in connection with Musk’s takeover, the workers said in an Oct. 25 brief. ERISA plans can’t be “informally” terminated or modified, ...