Court Reaffirms Catholic Hospital's Plan Not Exempt From ERISA As" Church Plan"

In Rollins v. Dignity Health,(ND CA, July 22, 2014), a California federal district court reaffirmed its earlier holding that Dignity Health's retirement plan is not a "church plan" exempt from ERISA because the plan was not established by a church.  Granting a declaratory judgment, the court rejected Dignity's argument that there is a genuine dispute of fact as to whether the plan should be seen as having been established by several religious orders that controlled Dignity at the time the plan was created.  The holding in the class action lawsuit means that the Catholic health care system's pension plan is underfunded by $1.2 billion.  San Francisco Business Times reports on the decision.