DeFazio

ORDER

Plaintiff, James P. DeFazio, brings this action against the defendants Hollister, Inc., Hollister Employee Share Ownership Trust (“Plan” or “Hollishare”), John Dickinson Schneider, Inc. (“JDS”), Samuel Brilliant, James A Karlovsky, James McCormack, Richard Zwirner, and Does 1-10, alleging violations of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (“ERISA”), 29 U.S.C. §§ 1001 . This matter is before the court on the defendants’ motions to transfer venue and to dismiss. I decide the motions based on the papers and pleadings filed herein and after oral argument.

I.

COMPLAINT

This case concerns plaintiffs community property share of his former wife’s vested interest in HolliShare, the Hollister Employee Share Ownership Trust (“Plan”), an employee profit-sharing plan governed by ERISA.

Upon plaintiffs separation from his former wife, Kathleen J. Ellis (“Ellis”), on January 16, 1998, the Superior Court of California entered an order which awarded plaintiff a community property share of Ellis’ vested benefits in the Plan she participated in while an employee of Hollister. The Superior Court ordered that the plaintiff, as an alternate payee of the Plan, have his interest held in…