Sherwin-Williams Employee Tobacco Fee Suit Sent to Arbitration

Sherwin-Williams Co. persuaded a federal judge to require two former employees to arbitrate some of their claims challenging the tobacco surcharge in the paint company’s health-care plan.

Judge Bridget Meehan Brennan ordered five of the case’s six claims to be sent to an arbitrator for a determination on whether they should proceed in court or in arbitration. The remaining claim, which alleges fiduciary breach on behalf of the health plan as a whole, will be paused while the arbitrator resolves these issues, Brennan said in an opinion issued Dec. 12 in the US District Court for the Northern District of ...