Lawsuit: First Fleet, Inc. Failed to Relay to Employees ERISA, COBRA Healthcare Rights

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Firstfleet, Inc. of Tennessee is the defendant in a proposed class action wherein the plaintiff claims the company failed to provide employees with mandatory notices of their right to continued healthcare coverage. The 15-page lawsuit, filed in Florida, cites suspected violations of both the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974—ERISA—and the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985—COBRA.

According to the complaint, the plaintiff’s employment as a driver for the defendant was terminated in January 2017. As the man was reportedly not terminated for gross misconduct, the case says the end of his employment is considered a “qualifying event” under the scope of COBRA’s regulations, which, among other mandates, require plan sponsors who employ more than 20 employees on a typical business day to provide notice of and allow for the election of continued healthcare coverage following a “qualifying event.”

“[The defendant] authored and disseminated a notice that was not appropriately completed, deviating from the model form in violation of COBRA’s requirements,” the case charges, “which failed to provide [the plaintiff] notice of all required coverage information and hindered [the plaintiff’s] ability to obtain continuation coverage, as explained further below.”

The plaintiff alleges the COBRA notice he received from First Fleet was not only “woefully late,” but appeared to have been taken straight from the company’s employee handbook. More specifically, the lawsuit says the defendant failed to provide the plaintiff with COBRA notice until January 2018 even though the man was terminated in September the previous year.