Supreme Court of the United States · Official docket →
FedEx Corporation, et al. v. Robert A. Watt, et al.
Paid petition · United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, No. 24-5945 · judgment March 16, 2026
(petition-stage, structural)
Modestly above the 4.1% base rate. The model weights this up for a dissent in the court below, a business petitioner, and counsel who has filed here before.
Question presented
The Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) requires defined benefit pension plans to offer participants’ accrued benefit in the form of a joint and survivor annuity, 29 U.S.C. 1055(a), a form of benefit that provides a stream of retirement income for the participant’s lifetime and that of the participant’s surviving spouse. This joint and survivor annuity must be the “actuarial equivalent” of a single annuity for the life of the participant. 29 U.S.C. 1055(d). The question presented is: Whether the reference to actuarially equivalent benefits in 29 U.S.C. 1055(d) places a substantive constraint on the reasonableness of the actuarial assumptions used to determine that benefit, even though Section 1055(d) does not use the word “reasonable” or mention actuarial assumptions.
Counsel of record
For petitioner
Michael Edward Kenneally Jr.
Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP
For respondent
Mathew Paul Jasinski
Motley Rice LLC
Case
Subject area
Economic Activity (estimated from the questions presented, in the Supreme Court Database’s categories)
Conference history
Distributed for 1 conference
Amicus briefs
1 cert-stage
Related
Vide, 26-387
Linked docket
26A156
Proceedings
- Oct 16 2026Amicus brief of The ERISA Industry Committee submitted.
- Oct 14 2026DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 11/6/2026.
- Sep 24 2026Waiver of right of respondent Robert Watt, et al. to respond filed.
- Sep 14 2026Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due October 16, 2026)
- Aug 05 2026Application (26A156) granted by Justice Kavanaugh extending the time to file until September 14, 2026.
- Jul 30 2026Application (26A156) to extend the time to file a petition for a writ of certiorari from August 13, 2026 to September 14, 2026, submitted to Justice Kavanaugh.