Help

BI’s Article search uses Boolean search capabilities. If you are not familiar with these principles, here are some quick tips.

To search specifically for more than one word, put the search term in quotation marks. For example, “workers compensation”. This will limit your search to that combination of words.

To search for a combination of terms, use quotations and the & symbol. For example, “hurricane” & “loss”.

Login Register Subscribe

UPDATES: ASSET MANAGEMENT SUIT CLEARED

Reprints

NEW YORK-A suit against John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Co. charging that it mismanaged assets of Unisys Corp.'s pension plan will proceed to trial after the insurer failed to reopen an issue that would have postponed the action.

Judge Denny Chin of the U.S. District Court in New York denied a pretrial motion by Hancock in Harris Trust & Savings Bank vs. John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Co. that would have reconsidered the issue of the insurer's fiduciary status under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act. Had Judge Chin ruled otherwise, "the case would have been as a practical matter over," said Harris Trust's attorney, Lawrence Kill of Anderson Kill & Olick in New York.

In his decision, Judge Chin noted that both a federal appellate court and the U.S. Supreme Court have already ruled that Hancock was an ERISA fiduciary with respect to the non-guaranteed assets in the group annuity contract that is the focus of the litigation (BI, Dec. 20, 1993; Aug. 10, 1992).

The trial is set for July 22.