A federal judge ruled that an attempt by former Medtronic Inc. (NYSE:MDT) employees to sue the company on grounds related to the Employment Retirement Income Security Act could not proceed.
U.S. District Court for Minnesota Judge Patrick Schiltz followed a decision by the U.S. Appeals Court for the 8th Circuit in denying the plaintiffs ERISA bid, according to court documents.
The former employees claimed that the the Fridley, Minn.-based company kept them in the dark about problems related to its Infuse bone graft material and Sprint Fidelis leads for implantable cardiac devices. The plaintiffs alleged that the company failed in its fiduciary duties by making disclosures about the products that downplayed the issues that led the company’s stock price to drop and the employees’ savings and investment plan to suffer.
The latest court ruling affirmed a later court’s decision that the plaintiffs "lacked standing because [they] suffered no constitutionally cognizable injury fairly traceable to" any of Medtronic’s alleged breaches of fiduciary duty, according to court documents.