District Court: Employee of an Independent Trustee Can Be Treated as Fiduciary

In a decision that appears to the first of its kind for ESOPs, a district court has held that Michael New, an employee of Evolve Bank and Trust, can potentially be deemed personally to be a fiduciary for an ESOP in a disputed valuation case. In Hugler v. Vinoskey, a district court in West Virginia refused to dismiss New's argument that as an employee of Evolve he was not himself a fiduciary.