Glenn Tibble v. Edison International

Current and former beneficiaries sued their employer’s benefit plan administrator under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act charging that their pension plan had been managed imprudently and in a self-interested fashion. We must decide, among other issues, whether the Act’s limitations period or its safe harbor provision are obstacles to their suit.

I

A

Edison International is a holding company for various electric utilities and other energy interests including Southern California Edison Company and the Edison Mission Group (collectively “Edison”), which itself consists of the Chicago-based Midwest Generation. Like most employer-organizations offering pensions today, Edison sponsors a 401(k) retirement plan for its workforce. During litigation, the total valuation of the “Edison 401(k) Savings Plan” was $3.8 billion, and it served approximately 20,000 employee-beneficiaries across the entire Edison International workforce. Unlike the guaranteed benefit pension plans of yesteryear, this kind of defined-contribution plan entitles retirees only to the value of their own individual investment accounts. See 29 U.S.C. § 1002 (34). That value is a function of the…