7th Circuit Panel Limits Ruling's 404(c) Effects

June 26, 2009 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - Faced with pressure to take another look at its February 2009 decision in a widely watched 401(k) excessive fee case, a federal appellate court has turned down the rehearing request but issued an addendum sharply limiting the earlier ruling's scope on the issue of 404(c) protections.

While the three judge panel at the 7 ^th  U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals refused to disturb the court's earlier holding in Hecker v. Deere & Co., Circuit Judges Daniel A. Manion, Diane P. Wood and John Daniel Tinder made clear the Hecker decision was not intended as a sweeping statement to be broadly applied to all similar fee disputes.

The court ruled in the earlier decision that a lower court was right in throwing out all allegations that heavy equipment maker Deere & Co. and its investment manager Fidelity Management Trust Co., violated the   Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) by charging participants excessive fees (see Appellate Court Backs Deere Case Dismissal ).

The decision helped spark an industry debate over the applicability of 404(c) protections in disputes such as that in the Hecker  case.