Estate of McLoone v. Intel Corp.

*716 MEMORANDUM **

The Estate of Thomas McLoone (“the Estate”) brought this action against defendant Intel Corp. (“Intel”) alleging that Intel had not informed the Estate of its right to McLoone’s stock options until the period to exercise the options had expired, despite the repeated inquiries of the Estate administrator about the scope of the benefits to which the Estate was entitled. The Estate contends that Intel violated its fiduciary duty under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (“ERISA”), 29 U.S.C. §§ 1001 et seq. Intel responds that it had no such duty with respect to the stock options because the options were not part of an ERISA plan. The district court granted summary judgment in favor of defendant. Finding plaintiffs amended complaint had not alleged any common law claims, the court dismissed the action in its entirety.

The stock options were not part of an ERISA plan. Intel’s plan under which the stock options were given to McLoone does not meet the statutory definition of either an employee welfare benefit plan or an employee pension benefit plan. See 29 U.S.C. §§ 1002 (1), 1002(2)(A). Even though Intel’s compensation handbook unfortunately might give lay…