CHARLESTON – The U.S. Secretary of Labor has filed suit against the owner of a convenience store chain and a medical plan over allegations they breached their fiduciary duty.
U.S. Secretary of Labor R. Alexander Acosta filed a complaint in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia against Donald Tate, Fas Chek Supermarkets and Fas Chek Employment Medical Benefit Plan alleging that they violated the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.
According to the complaint, the Fas Chek Employment Medical Benefit Plan was established in 1998 for Fas Check employees' health and welfare benefits. The suit states Tate made seven withdrawals or transfers from the plan between 2011 and 2014 for a total loss of $35,971.72 to the plan.
The suit states in 2014, 15 plan participants submitted claims totaling more than $29,000, which the plan lacked funds to pay. This amount remains unpaid, the suit states, and the plan was terminated in November 2014.
The plaintiff holds Tate, Fas Chek Supermarkets and Fas Chek Employment Medical Benefit Plan responsible because the defendants allegedly breached their fiduciary duty and did not make efforts to remedy the breaches.
The plaintiff seeks an order requiring defendants to restore the plan's losses plus interest, enjoining them from acting in any fiduciary capacity, award for costs of this action and any other relief that are just and equitable.
He is represented by Nicholas C. Geale, Oscar L. Hampton III, Jodeen M. Hobbs and Jessica R. Brown of the Office of the Solicitor General in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Carol A. Cato of U.S. Department of Labor in Washington, D.C. and Stephen M. Horn of United States Attorney's Office in Charleston.
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia case number 2:17-cv-04183