Removal Improper Where ESOP Participants’ Claims Did Not Implicate ERISA

In Husvar v. Rapoport, 337 F.3d 603 (6th Cir. July 23, 2003), plaintiffs brought claims in Ohio state court alleging common law breach of fiduciary duty for alleged mismanagement of their ESOP. Defendants removed the case by arguing that it implicated ERISA. The district court agreed, and subsequently granted a motion to dismiss. The Sixth Circuit found that the claims did not challenge the actions of the plan fiduciary, but rather attacked the actions of the company’s board of directors in compensating the plan fiduciary. The complaint could not be characterized as preempted by ERISA. Therefore, federal subject-matter jurisdiction was absent and the case was remanded to state court.