Ponce De Leon v. International Longshoremen's & Warehousemen's Union-Pacific Maritime Ass'n Welfare Plan

MEMORANDUM

Francisco Ponce de Leon appeals a district order, denying his request for attorneys’ fees arising out of an Employee Retirement Income and Security Act (ERISA) benefits dispute. We affirm.

1.The district court applied the established test for awarding attorneys’ fees under section 502(g)(1) of ERISA, 29 U.S.C. § 1132 (g)(1), which presumes that fees should be awarded to a claimant who achieves success on the merits absent “special circumstances” that make an award unjust. Smith v. CMTA-IAM Pension Tr., 746 F.2d 587, 589 (9th Cir. 1984). The record supports the district court’s conclusion that Ponce de Leon’s litigation efforts were not responsible for his success, but were instead “trivial” and “purely procedural.” See Hardt v. Reliance Standard Life Ins. Co., 560 U.S. 242, 255 , 130 S.Ct. 2149 , 176 L.Ed.2d 998 (2010) (quoting Ruckelshaus v. Sierra Club, 463 U.S. 680 , 688 n.9, 103 S.Ct. 3274 , 77 L.Ed.2d 938 (1983)). Ponce de Leon voluntarily agreed to stay his litigation soon after filing his complaint and before the Plan filed a responsive pleading. Thereafter the district court played largely a passive role in Ponce de Leon’s case — simply staying the action…