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Bellsouth Out-of-Area Telephone Concession Litigation

Practice Area: Employee Benefits

 

Summary of Lawsuit:

This lawsuit alleges that the Telephone Concession promised and provided to retirees who live outside the BellSouth Service Area (“Out of Area Telephone Concession”) constitutes a defined benefit pension plan under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act ("ERISA"), the federal law which protects employee benefits. This lawsuit seeks a determination that the Out-of-Service Area Telephone Concession must comply with ERISA and most importantly protect the benefits promised to any included employees and retirees – in other words that neither AT&T nor BellSouth (now a part of AT&T) can reduce or eliminate those benefits.

Class Action Allegations:

This lawsuit is brought on behalf of the following persons:

  1. Retirees of a BellSouth Company as of December 29, 2006 who received Telephone Concession and lived outside the BellSouth Service Area and lived outside the AT&T Service Area on or after December 29, 2006; or
  2. Current of former employees of a BellSouth Participating Company with more than five years of service with a BellSouth Participating Company as of December 29, 2006 who were eligible or who may become eligible to receive Telephone Concession after they retire while they reside outside the BellSouth Service Area and outside the AT&T Service Area; or
  3. Current spouses of any person in Group 1 or Group 2.

The Court granted Plaintiffs' motion for class certification on August 8, 2008.

Current Status:

Plaintiffs and Defendants have filed motions with the Court for a pre-trial determination whether the OOR Retiree Concession is an ERISA pension plan.  The Court heard oral argument on these motion in September 2009.  In March 2010, the Judge issued a decision on Plaintiffs’ and Defendants’ motions, unfortunately ruling against Plaintiffs and in favor of Defendants by determining that the OOR Retiree Concession is not an ERISA-covered pension plan.  The Court rejected the plaintiffs’ contention that it did not matter whether the OOR Retiree Concession was separate from or part of other telephone concession benefits and that, in any event, the OOR Retiree Concession was provided as a separate plan from the benefits paid to other retirees who received telephone services from BellSouth and AT&T.  Essentially, the court determined that unless all “telephone concession” benefits provided retirement income, then none of the benefits could be an ERISA pension plan. The Court then determined that the OOR Retiree Concession was neither retirement income nor resulted in the deferral of income.  As a result, the Court concluded that the OOR Retiree Concession was not a pension plan.  Plaintiffs intend to  appeal this decision to the Fifth Circuit.

Whom To Contact For More Information:

If you are a member of the proposed class (defined above) who is receiving or eligible to receive an Out-of-Service Area Telephone Concession after you retire, or you have information which might assist us in the prosecution of these allegations, please contact one of the following persons:

R. Joseph Barton, Esq.  jbarton@cohenmilstein.com
Eva Schildhause, Paralegal  eschildhause@cohenmilstein.com
Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC
1100 New York Avenue, N.W., Suite 500
Washington, D.C. 20005
Telephone: 888-240-0775 or 202-408-4600

If you are a potential member of the class, please fill out and return the questionnaire and return the completed questionnaire to Eva Schildhause at the above address.