Swimsuit Dismissed Over Outdated Dominion’s Retirement Plan

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A federal District Courtroom decide has dismissed a lawsuit filed towards Outdated Dominion Freight Line Inc. over the administration and pricing of its retirement plan choices.

The lawsuit was filed Nov. 18, 2022, by former worker Harvey Davis within the federal Center District of North Carolina.

Outdated Dominion filed its dismissal request in February, saying Davis lacked standing to file the lawsuit.

Choose Thomas Schroeder dominated Sept. 7 that Davis lacked standing in his dismissal. The lawsuit, nevertheless, will be refiled.

Outdated Dominion couldn’t be instantly reached for touch upon the dismissal.

Outdated Dominion has described the lawsuit as “one in all greater than 250 cookie-cutter class actions filed within the final three years towards giant 401(okay) plan sponsors.”

“These lawsuits assert hindsight-based imprudence claims towards plan fiduciaries related to the quantity of third-party administrative charges the plan paid, the prices of the plan’s varied investments, and/or the efficiency of sure funds.”

In keeping with court docket filings, Davis was an worker from 1989 till Jan. 31, 2021.

Davis filed the swimsuit on behalf of the Outdated Dominion 401(okay) Retirement Plan. It covers the time interval of Nov. 18, 2016, to the current. The 401(okay) plan held $2.02 billion in belongings as of Dec. 31, 2021.

In keeping with the dismissal, Davis alleges that he was injured by Outdated Dominion’s mismanagement of the plan, “paying extreme recordkeeping and administrative prices related to the plan and investing within the imprudent funding choices provided by the plan, that are the topic of this lawsuit.”

“However, he supplies no factual allegation of what these prices and investments have been.

“As an alternative, on its face, the grievance comprises no factual help for the conclusory allegations that he personally invested in any of the imprudent funding choices, nor that he suffered another sort of particular monetary loss.”

Davis requested class-action standing that would cowl as many as 24,033 plan members. Outdated Dominion listed having on common 22,438 full-time workers as of June 30.

Background

Davis accuses the corporate of “breaching its fiduciary duties of prudence in violation of the (federal) Worker Retirement Revenue Safety Act.”

Nice-West Monetary Retirement Plan Companies, an affiliate of Empower Monetary, is the plan’s recordkeeper.

Particularly, the lawsuit claims the corporate has allowed the plan to cost extreme charges on investments.

In keeping with the lawsuit, the expense ratio was usually about one-tenth of a p.c larger than related choices inside the identical fund.

“Defendant chosen and retained for the plan high-priced investments when the equivalent investments have been obtainable to the plan at a fraction of the price,” based on the lawsuit.

The lawsuit claims the upper charges “precipitated the plan and its members to wrongfully lose roughly $3 million in retirement financial savings over the course of the related time interval.”

Outdated Dominion mentioned that based mostly on “nonspecific allegations, plaintiffs demand that the court docket unlock the door to multimillion-dollar class-action discovery, hoping that defendants will [wave] the white flag of settlement moderately than bear the monetary burden of litigation.”

Outdated Dominion mentioned in its response that Davis “by no means invested in any of the challenged funds and alleges no planwide mismanagement.”

“As a result of Davis by no means invested within the challenged funds, the worth of his particular person account won’t fluctuate one cent whether or not he wins or loses this case. Subsequently, plaintiff has no concrete stake on this lawsuit.

“The truth that different plan members might have invested within the challenged funds and sustained alleged accidents to their particular person accounts is irrelevant.”

Schroeder dominated that “Outdated Dominion has met its burden of displaying that Davis was not individually harmed, and subsequently lacks standing on the face of the grievance to proceed on this case.”

“A overview of the data provided by Outdated Dominion, which can be thought of at this stage given the jurisdictional nature of this concern, helps its declare that Davis didn’t, in truth, put money into any of the challenged funds.”

Thomasville, N.C.-based Outdated Dominion Freight Line ranks No. 10 on the Transport Matters High 100 checklist of the biggest for-hire carriers in North America.

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