On October 13, 2026, the en banc Eleventh Circuit held in Bolton v. Inland Fresh Seafood Corporation of America that ERISA does not require plaintiffs to exhaust a plan’s internal claims procedures before suing in federal court for breach of fiduciary duty or other statutory violations. The ruling overturns four decades of precedent that had made the Eleventh Circuit the only circuit to require exhaustion of statutory ERISA claims. For plan sponsors and fiduciaries sued in Alabama, Florida, and Georgia, the decision removes a common early-dismissal defense and aligns the Eleventh Circuit with most other circuits.
The Underlying Action
The plaintiffs, five former Inland Fresh employees, filed a putative class action on behalf of the company’s employee stock ownership plan and its participants. They alleged that in November 2016, the plan used a $92 million loan, guaranteed by Inland Fresh, to buy all of the company’s outstanding common stock from four of its officers and directors.… Read the complete article here...
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