Gateway Bank FSB will have to pay nearly $200,000 in attorneys’ fees and costs to its former president and CEO, who successfully challenged the denial of her termination benefits under an ERISA plan.
Poppi Metaxas was entitled to the award under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, which allows any party that achieves “some degree of success on the merits” to collect attorneys’ fees and costs, the US District Court for the Northern District of California said. The court previously found that the administrator of Gateway’s Supplemental Executive Retirement Plan abused his discretion by interpreting a plan provision to deny ...