Click here for a short summary of the issue. Click here for a detailed timeline.
See also the Pension Rights Center website.
Click here for ex-St. Peter's CEO John Matuska's 2011 letter to the IRS.
Click here for ex-St. Peter's VP of HR Bruce Pardo's 2011 letter to the IRS.
Haga clic aqui para verun resumen del problema en español.


Saturday, May 11, 2013

Class Action Lawsuit Launched Against Saint Peter's

Saint Peter's Retirement Plan participant Larry Kaplan has asked us to share the following statement.
A Class Action Complaint has been filed against Saint Peter's Healthcare System by Laurence Kaplan, on behalf of himself, individually, and on behalf of all others similarly situated. This lawsuit is brought on behalf of Plan participants who are covered by the original Defined Benefit Plan, which the Healthcare System is trying to convert to a Church Plan.

The complaint has been filed to convince the Court that our Plan should remain covered by ERISA with all of the benefits and not be changed to a Church Plan. Within the complaint are many reasons which describe why the Healthcare System is not entitled to change the Plan to a Church Plan. I cannot go into detail, but the complaint clearly covers the technical reasons for this change not to happen.

Our attorneys are a Nationally known firm based in Washington, D.C. and are handling this case on a contingency basis, so there is no money that we have to pay them at any time. Their fee will be determined by the Court, if the case is won, and will be ultimately paid by the Healthcare System. If we lose, the firm will not be paid by anyone, but will have put many man hours working on this complaint for our benefit.

Larry Kaplan
At present we have no further info on this announcement, but we will share info if and when it becomes available. We still expect to follow up soon on our previous post with information on responding to the latest IRS comment period.

Until then, some other related news: There's a new article in the Star-Ledger about the restoration of benefits for Healthcare Center at Orange retirees. Meanwhile, employees of St. Mary's in Passaic are losing their "church fund" pensions, as management there starved the fund and then sold the business. I'm sure they received similar reassurances as we have heard from SPUH management.