Perez

I. INTRODUCTION

18 Plaintiffs Hormel Foods Corporation Hourly Employees’ Pension Plan (the Plan) and 19 Hormel Foods Corporation (Hormel) filed this action on July 15, 2022, against Defendant Marie 20 E. Perez. (ECF No. 1). Asserting jurisdiction under the Employee Retirement Income Security 21 Act of 1974 (ERISA), 29 U.S.C. §§ 1001, et seq., Plaintiffs seek to recover money mistakenly paid to Defendant, who shares the same name as a Hormel employee. The matter is now before the Court on Hormel’s motion for default judgment.1 Because the facts alleged do not establish a claim under the ERISA statute at issue, the Court will recommend that the motion for default judgment be denied, that Plaintiffs’ accompanying bill of 26 27 1 As explained below, although both Plaintiffs initially moved for default judgment, only Hormel seeks default judgment now. costs be denied as moot, and that the action be dismissed.2 II. BACKGROUND The complaint alleges original jurisdiction over this matter under 28 U.S.C. § 1331 because this action purportedly falls under ERISA. See also 29 U.S.C. § 1132(e)(1) (generally providing for federal jurisdiction in…