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Victory for client Barrick Gold in the Tenth Circuit

Firm News

Quinn Emanuel achieved a significant victory for its client Barrick Gold in the Tenth Circuit, which, in a 48-page published decision affirmed the district court’s dismissal of putative class action claims for breach of fiduciary duties under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) against Barrick Gold, its benefits committee, and its board of directors.  The panel in a unanimous decision found that the claims alleging employees lost millions of dollars by having purportedly high cost investment options in the retirement plan when cheaper alternatives were available were properly dismissed because the documents referenced in the complaint revealed that the plan’s investment options were actually cheaper than the purportedly lower-cost alternatives identified by the plaintiffs and with respect to other investment options, the complaint failed to show that the funds they sought to compare were meaningful alternatives with a similar investment style.

Congratulations to the QE team - Sandy Weisburst, Stephen Wood, and Kaitlin P. Sheehan.