Pension Lawsuit is Class Certified

Tuesday, September 18 2001

Today, Judge Murphy, Chief United States District Judge in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Illinois, issued an order certifying that up to 140,000 employees, ex-employees, and retirees are part of the class in Cooper v. IBM. This is a lawsuit against IBM charging that the 1995 and 1999
pension plan amendments are illegal. Plaintiffs in the case believe all employees participating in a defined benefit plan have a right to be covered by a non-discriminatory plan, and that rather than giving their employees a choice between multiple illegal options, IBM needs to amend both the 1995 plan and the 1999 plan in ways that are not age discriminatory.

The conclusion of Judge Murphy's certification order (from an unofficial copy, so layout and punctuation may be different) is:

III. CONCLUSION
For the foregoing reasons, Defendants', motions to strike Plaintiffs', supplemental brief in support of renewed motion for class certification (Doc 60) is DENIED, and Plaintiffs', motion for class certification (Doc 48) is GRANTED.

The Court hereby CERTIFIES the following class;

All individuals who have participated in the IBM Personal Pension Plan at any time after December 31, 1994.

This class is divided into the following three subclasses:

Subclass 1: All individuals who have participated in the IBM Personal Pension Plan at any time after December 31, 1994, whose accrued benefits have been or will be determined pursuant to the 1995 Personal Pension Plan formula.

Subclass 2: All individuals who have participated in the IBM Personal Pension Plan at any time after December 31, 1994, whose accrued benefits have been or will be determined pursuant to the 1999 Cash Balance Plan Formula.

Subclass 3: All individuals who were employed by IBM as of July 1, 1999, and who have or in the future will leave IBM's employ before meeting the 5-year vesting requirement.

This certification is conditional and may be altered or amended before a decision on the merits.

This Court hereby APPOINTS Kathi Cooper, Beth Harrington, and Matthew Hillesheim as Class Representatives, and further appoints Kathi Cooper as Class Representative of Subclass 1, Beth Harrington as Class Representative of Subclass 2, and Matthew Hillesheim as Class Representative of Subclass 3.

This Court further APPOINTS Steven A. Katz, Douglas R. Sprong, and William K. Carr as counsel for the class and subclasses.

IT IS SO ORDERED.

DATED this 17th day of September, 2001.

(signed)
G. Patrick Murphy
Chief United States District Judge

The full text of Judge Murphy's order is available at http://www.cashpensions.org/cert.htm

Discussion among IBMer's about this is taking place on the Yahoo IBM Pension Board, http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/ibmpension