Harris Trust and Savings Bank, as Trustee for the Ameritech Pension Trust v. Salomon Smith Barney Inc.

Summary

The Court unanimously held, in an opinion by Justice Thomas, that ERISA § 502(a)(3) authorizes appropriate equitable relief against a nonfiduciary party in interest participating in a transaction prohibited by § 406(a), even though that substantive provision imposes duties only on fiduciaries. Trust-law principles permit restitution against a transferee of plan assets who had actual or constructive knowledge of the circumstances rendering the transaction unlawful, while protecting purchasers for value without notice. The Court also rejected the argument that petitioners could not advance their statutory theory because they had not precisely articulated it below. It reversed the Seventh Circuit’s judgment and remanded, leaving transaction-specific defenses and allocation of the burden of proof unresolved. There were no separate opinions.