SBC Pension Benefit Plan Denial of BenefitsWagener v. SBC Pension Benefit Plan, No. 03-769 (D.D.C.) and Calder v. SBC Pension Benefit Plan, No. 07-340 (W.D. Tex.) are cases for claims of benefits on behalf of some 6,500 retirees who took early retirement from SBC Communications, Inc. ("SBC" or the "Company") or one of its affiliated companies pursuant to an Enhanced Pension and Retirement Program ("EPR" or "the Program"), a program designed to encourage thousands of SBC employees (or those employed by SBC-related companies) to take early retirement. The Wagener lawsuit in the District of Columbia alleges that Class members have been wrongfully denied several thousand dollars in pension benefits as a result of SBC’s arbitrary exclusion of two weeks of pay (an entire pay period) from SBC’s calculation of each Class members’ Annual Average Compensation, calculated for the purpose of determining the benefits they were and are due under the Plan. The lawsuit alleges that this exclusion of a pay period from the Class members’ benefits calculation was and is irrational, was and is without support in the terms of the Plan, and was and is a product of SBC’s desire to save itself tens of millions of dollars which it will otherwise have to contribute to the currently underfunded Plan in order to pay the withheld benefits. SBC claimed the exclusion was justified and moved to dismiss the complaint, which the district court granted in March 2004. Plaintiffs appealed the case to the D.C. Circuit and the D.C. Circuit reversed the lower court's dismissal of the case. The case has been remanded back to the District Court where litigation continues and discovery is ongoing. The Calder lawsuit is a related case in the Western District of Texas. This case was originally filed in the Northern District of Illinois and was transferred to the Western District of Texas on April 13, 2007. If you have information which might assist us in the investigation of these allegations, please contact: Marc I. Machiz, Esq.
Whitney R. Case, Esq., wcase@cmht.com
Abigail Gustafson, Paralegal, agustafson@cmht.com
Cohen, Milstein, Hausfeld & Toll, P.L.L.C.
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