SunTrust Plan Participants’ Stock-Drop Claims Tossed A Second Time

A federal district court in Georgia recently dismissed a suit brought by participants in the SunTrust Bank 401(k) savings plan alleging fiduciary breaches based on defendants' decision to continue permitting investment in SunTrust stock while its value declined during the subprime mortgage crisis. The court had previously granted in part and denied in part SunTrust's motion to dismiss, and SunTrust appealed. The Eleventh Circuit stayed the appeal until it issued an opinion in Lanfear v. Home Depot, Inc., 679 F.3d 1267 (11th Cir. 2012), which raised similar issues. In Home Depot, the Eleventh Circuit ruled that "a fiduciary abuses his discretion by acting in compliance with the directions of the plan only when the fiduciary could not have reasonably believed that the settlors would have intended for him to do so under the circumstances." Following its decision in Home Depot, the Eleventh Circuit reversed the district court's decision in SunTrust and remanded plaintiffs'