Cite as: 530 U. S. 238 (2000)
Opinion of the Court
duciary may bring suit against an "other person" under the similarly worded subsection (a)(3). See Mertens, 508 U. S., at 260. Section 502(l), therefore, refutes the notion that § 502(a)(3) (or (a)(5)) liability hinges on whether the particular defendant labors under a duty expressly imposed by the substantive provisions of ERISA Title I.
Salomon invokes Mertens as articulating an alternative, more restrictive reading of § 502(l) that does not support the inference we have drawn. In Mertens, we suggested, in dictum, that the "other person[s]" in § 502(l) might be limited to the "cofiduciaries" made expressly liable under § 405(a) for knowingly participating in another fiduciary's breach of fiduciary responsibility. Id., at 261. So read, § 502(l) would be consistent with the view that liability under § 502(a)(3) depends entirely on whether the particular defendant violated a duty expressly imposed by the substantive provisions of ERISA Title I. But the Mertens dictum did not discuss— understandably, since we were merely flagging the issue, see 508 U. S., at 255, 260-261—that ERISA defines the term "person" without regard to status as a cofiduciary (or, for that matter, as a fiduciary or party in interest), see § 3(9), 29 U. S. C. § 1002(9). Moreover, § 405(a) indicates that a cofiduciary is itself a fiduciary, see § 405(a), 29 U. S. C. § 1105(a) ("[A] fiduciary . . . shall be liable for a breach of fiduciary responsibility of another fiduciary . . ."), and § 502(l) clearly distinguishes between a "fiduciary," § 502(l)(1)(A), 29 U. S. C. § 1132(l)(1)(A), and an "other person," § 502(l)(1)(B), 29 U. S. C. § 1132(l)(1)(B).
III
Notwithstanding the text of § 502(a)(3) (as informed by § 502(l)), Salomon protests that it would contravene common sense for Congress to have imposed civil liability on a party, such as a nonfiduciary party in interest to a § 406(a) transaction, that is not a "wrongdoer" in the sense of violating a duty expressly imposed by the substantive provisions of ERISA Title I. Salomon raises the specter of § 502(a)(3)
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