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CourtListener opinion 4153750

Citation: Domestic Relations Order · Date unknown · US

Extracted case name
DDP-AJW v. DIRECTORS
Extracted reporter citation
Domestic Relations Order
Docket / number
pending
QDRO relevance 5/5Retirement relevance 5/5Family-law relevance 5/5gold label pending
Research-use warning: This page contains machine-draft public annotations generated from public opinion text. The headnote is not Willie-approved gold-label work product and is not legal advice. Verify the full opinion and current law before relying on it.

Machine-draft headnote

Machine-draft public headnote: CourtListener opinion 4153750 is included in the LexyCorpus QDRO sample set as a public CourtListener opinion with relevance to pension / defined benefit issues. The current annotation is conservative: it identifies source provenance, relevance signals, and evidence quotes for attorney/agent retrieval. It is not a Willie-approved legal headnote yet.

Retrieval annotation

Draft retrieval summary: this opinion has QDRO relevance score 5/5, retirement-division score 5/5, and family-law score 5/5. Use the quoted text and full opinion below before relying on the case.

Category: pension / defined benefit issues

Evidence quotes

QDRO

I alleges a claim against all defendants for violation of ERISA § 510, 29 U.S.C. § 1140. On this count, Williams' prayer for relief "[a]gainst all defendants for the loss to [her] pension benefits because of the Willis [Qualified Domestic Relations Order ("QDRO")]" amounts to a request for equitable relief 4 from the effect of the Willis QDRO. In other words, Williams effectively seeks relief from the allegedly erroneous state court judgment in the interpleader action, which reaffirmed the validity of the Willis QDRO. Therefore, her § 510 action is barred by the Rooker-Feldman doctrine. See Noel, 341 F.3d at

pension

D STATES COURT OF APPEALS MOLLY C. DWYER, CLERK U.S. COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT TERRY WILLIAMS-ILUNGA, No. 15-55599 Plaintiff-Appellant, D.C. No. 2:14-cv-05415-DDP-AJW v. DIRECTORS/TRUSTEES OF MEMORANDUM* PRODUCER-WRITERS GUILD OF AMERICA PENSION PLAN; et al., Defendants-Appellees. Appeal from the United States District Court for the Central District of California Dean D. Pregerson, District Judge, Presiding Argued and Submitted March 7, 2017 Pasadena, California Before: REINHARDT, TASHIMA, and NGUYEN, Circuit Judges. We affirm the dismissal of all three counts in Terry Williams-Ilunga's

ERISA

to be cured: a subsequent federal claim is completely barred if it amounts to "a de facto appeal from a state court judgment." Kougasian v. TMSL, Inc., 359 F.3d 1136, 1139 (9th Cir. 2004). 2. Assuming that Count II is premised on a benefits dispute under ERISA § 502(a)(1)(B), 29 U.S.C. § 1132(a)(1)(B), the claim was properly dismissed pursuant to the Rooker-Feldman doctrine. Rooker-Feldman bars federal jurisdiction where a plaintiff "complain[s] of a legal injury caused by a state court judgment, based on an allegedly erroneous legal ruling, in a case in which the federal plaintiff was one of the litigants."

domestic relations order

nal services. 3. Count III alleges a claim against all defendants for violation of ERISA § 510, 29 U.S.C. § 1140. On this count, Williams' prayer for relief "[a]gainst all defendants for the loss to [her] pension benefits because of the Willis [Qualified Domestic Relations Order ("QDRO")]" amounts to a request for equitable relief 4 from the effect of the Willis QDRO. In other words, Williams effectively seeks relief from the allegedly erroneous state court judgment in the interpleader action, which reaffirmed the validity of the Willis QDRO. Therefore, her § 510 action is barred by the Rooker-Feldman doctrine. See Noel, 341

Source and provenance

Source type
courtlistener_qdro_opinion_full_text
Permissions posture
public
Generated status
machine draft public v0
Review status
gold label pending
Jurisdiction metadata
US
Deterministic extraction
reporter: Domestic Relations Order
Generated at
May 14, 2026

Related public corpus pages

Deterministic links based on shared title/citation terms and QDRO / retirement / family-law retrieval scores.

Clean opinion text

FILED
 NOT FOR PUBLICATION
 MAR 17 2017
 UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS MOLLY C. DWYER, CLERK
 U.S. COURT OF APPEALS

 FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT

TERRY WILLIAMS-ILUNGA, No. 15-55599

 Plaintiff-Appellant, D.C. No.
 2:14-cv-05415-DDP-AJW
 v.

DIRECTORS/TRUSTEES OF MEMORANDUM*
PRODUCER-WRITERS GUILD OF
AMERICA PENSION PLAN; et al.,

 Defendants-Appellees.

 Appeal from the United States District Court
 for the Central District of California
 Dean D. Pregerson, District Judge, Presiding

 Argued and Submitted March 7, 2017
 Pasadena, California

Before: REINHARDT, TASHIMA, and NGUYEN, Circuit Judges.

 We affirm the dismissal of all three counts in Terry Williams-Ilunga's

("Williams") complaint.

 *
 This disposition is not appropriate for publication and is not precedent
except as provided by Ninth Circuit Rule 36-3.
 1. As to Count I, the jurisdictional dismissal in Williams' first federal action

has preclusive effect with respect to the issue of subject matter jurisdiction. See

United States v. Van Cauwenberghe, 934 F.2d 1048, 1057 (9th Cir. 1991); 18A C.

Wright, A. Miller, & E. Cooper, Federal Practice and Procedure § 4436 (3d ed.).

Under the issue preclusion doctrine, "[w]hen an issue of fact or law is actually

litigated and determined by a valid and final judgment, and the determination is

essential to the judgment, the determination is conclusive in a subsequent action

between the parties, whether on the same or a different claim." B & B Hardware,

Inc. v. Hargis Indus., Inc., 135 S. Ct. 1293, 1303 (2015) ((quoting Restatement

(Second) of Judgments § 27 (1980)). Here, the dismissal of Williams' first federal

action satisfies all of these requirements with respect to subject matter jurisdiction.

Williams is precluded from establishing subject matter jurisdiction in this case.

 2
 Dismissal of Williams' first action was not based on a "curable defect" in

jurisdiction, but rather was based on Rooker-Feldman.1 Under Rooker-Feldman,

there is no defect to be cured: a subsequent federal claim is completely barred if it

amounts to "a de facto appeal from a state court judgment." Kougasian v. TMSL,

Inc., 359 F.3d 1136, 1139 (9th Cir. 2004).

 2. Assuming that Count II is premised on a benefits dispute under ERISA §

502(a)(1)(B), 29 U.S.C. § 1132(a)(1)(B), the claim was properly dismissed

pursuant to the Rooker-Feldman doctrine. Rooker-Feldman bars federal

jurisdiction where a plaintiff "complain[s] of a legal injury caused by a state court

judgment, based on an allegedly erroneous legal ruling, in a case in which the

federal plaintiff was one of the litigants." Noel, 341 F.3d at 1163. Here, the state

court in a previous interpleader action entered an order purporting to resolve all

 1
 "The Rooker–Feldman doctrine takes its name from Rooker v. Fidelity
Trust Co., 263 U.S. 413, 44 S.Ct. 149, 68 L.Ed. 362 (1923), and District of
Columbia Court of Appeals v. Feldman, 460 U.S. 462, 103 S.Ct. 1303, 75 L.Ed.2d
206 (1983). Under Rooker-Feldman, a federal district court does not have subject
matter jurisdiction to hear a direct appeal from the final judgment of a state court.
Noel v. Hall, 341 F.3d 1148, 1154 (9th Cir. 2003)." In other words, Rooker-
Feldman bars subject matter jurisdiction over cases in which "the losing party in
state court file[s] suit in federal court after the state proceedings ended,
complaining of an injury caused by the state-court judgment and seeking review
and rejection of that judgment." Exxon Mobil Corp. v. Saudi Basic Indus. Corp.,
544 U.S. 280, 291 (2005).
 3
 claims to the benefits in question. To the extent that Williams continues to dispute

the amount of benefits to which she is entitled, her claim is barred because it

"asserts as a legal wrong an allegedly erroneous decision by a state court, and

seeks relief from a state court judgment based on that decision." Id.

 If Count II is a claim for breach of fiduciary duty under ERISA § 502(a)(2)

and (3), 29 U.S.C. § 1132(a)(2) and (3), Williams fails to state a claim upon which

relief can be granted. The Plan itself cannot be sued for breach of fiduciary duty.

See Acosta v. Pac. Enters., 950 F.2d 611, 618 (9th Cir. 1991), as amended on reh'g

(Jan. 23, 1992). Williams also fails to state a claim for breach of fiduciary duty

against the the lawyer-defendants, Neelam Chandna, Jeffrey David Sackman, and

the law firm of Reich, Adell & Cvitan. Lawyers may be treated as fiduciaries under

ERISA only if they "perform more than the usual professional services." Concha v.

London, 62 F.3d 1493, 1502 (9th Cir. 1995). Williams' threadbare factual

allegations against the lawyer-defendants do not allege anything more than the

provision of ordinary professional services.

 3. Count III alleges a claim against all defendants for violation of ERISA §

510, 29 U.S.C. § 1140. On this count, Williams' prayer for relief "[a]gainst all

defendants for the loss to [her] pension benefits because of the Willis [Qualified

Domestic Relations Order ("QDRO")]" amounts to a request for equitable relief

 4
 from the effect of the Willis QDRO. In other words, Williams effectively seeks

relief from the allegedly erroneous state court judgment in the interpleader action,

which reaffirmed the validity of the Willis QDRO. Therefore, her § 510 action is

barred by the Rooker-Feldman doctrine. See Noel, 341 F.3d at 1164.

 4. For the foregoing reasons, the judgment of the district court is

AFFIRMED.

 5