A major legal challenge to AdventHealth (formerly Adventist Health System) has been dismissed after a judge threw out a lawsuit by a former AHS employee that claimed the system underfunded its retirement by millions and had breached its duty under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.

The Adventist network had argued that it was not subject to ERISA due to its “church plan” exemption which does not require its retirement plans to be as heavily funded as ERISA-compliant ones.

The PlanSponsor employee benefits site reported that the lawsuit filed by the former AHS employee had been amended three times.

“As with the dismissal of previous iterations of the complaint, U.S. District Judge Gregory A. Presnell of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida found that in many counts, the plaintiff did not sufficiently allege an injury or did not specify which defendant to which the count applied,” stated the PlanSponsor article.

Presnell ruled that, as the lawsuit had been presented thrice, “the time has come to dismiss this suit with prejudice.”

Adventist Health System is a non-profit health care organization that operates over 40 hospital campuses within the Southern and Midwestern regions of the United States. Its headquarters is in Altamonte Springs, Florida. It is affiliated with the Adventist Church.

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