Wolf v. Coca-Cola Co., 200 F.3d 1337 (11^th Cir. 2000).-Wolf filed suit after losing her job at Coca-Cola as a computer programmer and analyst. Among other claims were a claim for benefits under ERISA and a claim of retaliation under ERISA.  This court affirmed the district court’s grant of summary judgment against all of Appellant's claims.

Wolf’s claim for benefits under ERISA failed because Wolf failed to meet the two requirements necessary to be considered a plan participant.  ERISA § 1002(7) defines a participant as  "any employee or former employee of an employer ... who is or may become eligible to receive a benefit of any type [from the ERISA plan]."  First, she was arguably not an employee of Coca-Cola, but was instead an independent contractor for the staffing agency that signed and renewed one-year staffing contracts with Coca-Cola.  Second, even if Wolf could be considered an employee after applying the 14-factor test for common law employment relationship established in Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co. v. Darden, 503 U.S. 318, 319 (1992), the Coca-Cola plan explicitly reserved participation to regular employees, and excluded temporary and leased employees.  Wolf’s ERISA retaliation claim similarly failed because she could not demonstrate participant status—the first prong of prima facie case for retaliation.