Margaret Stewart Jamey L. Paulson William Keith Laura Spencer Lee Callison Stephanie Glowa Terri Gorecki Dan Berryman v. U.S. Bancorp

OVERVIEW

Margaret Stewart, Dan Berryman, William Keith, Laura Spencer, Lee Callison, Stephanie Glowa, Terri Górecki, and Jam-ey Paulson (collectively “Plaintiffs”) appeal the district court’s dismissal of their complaint brought under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (“ERISA”), 29 U.S.C. §§ 1001-1461 . The district court determined that Plaintiffs’ lawsuit was barred by res judicata because their claims could have been raised in a previous action. Plaintiffs ask us to reverse the district court’s ruling on the ground that res judicata does not apply because the dismissal of their previous action was not a decision on the merits. We have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291 , and we affirm.

BACKGROUND

Plaintiffs worked as investment executives at U.S. Bancorp, but they were terminated in 1997 after U.S. Bancorp merged with First Bank System. U.S. Bancorp offered its departing employees generous severance packages. Two packages were available depending on the employee’s position: (1) the Broad Based Program that entitled low level, non-supervisory employees to eight weeks severance pay, and (2) the Middle Management Program that entitled supervisory…