VANCOUVER, British Columbia, April 2, 2003 (PRIMEZONE) -- The following is being announced by Koskie Minsky:
A class action lawsuit was filed yesterday in the Supreme Court of British Columbia on behalf of several thousand members of the B.C. College Pension Fund. The suit alleges that the College Pension Board of Trustees improperly allocated a $120 million Pension Fund surplus.
The class action was filed by Anthony Williams, Richard Scott and Michael Griffin of Kelowna and Ashley Dermer of Vancouver. The plaintiffs are retired members of the B.C. College Pension Fund. They are represented by class action lawyer David Klein of Klein Lyons. Klein Lyons is working on the case in conjunction with leading pension lawyer Mark Zigler of Koskie Minsky of Toronto, Ontario.
An actuarial report prepared for the Board in May, 2001 revealed that the Fund had a $120 million actuarial surplus as of August 31, 2000. Although the retired and deferred vested members of the Fund represent 24% to 41% of the Funds actuarial liabilities (depending on the method of calculation), The Board gave only 4% of the surplus to those members. The rest was allocated to employers and active employees.
According to the Statement of Claim "The Trustee's fiduciary responsibilities include a duty to act in an impartial and even-handed manner with regard to the interest of all plan members." The suit seeks an order to reallocate the surplus "impartially and even-handedly among all plan members by granting the members of the plaintiff class a proportionate share of the surplus." The Claim further requests punitive damages against the Board for the "high-handed and arrogant manner in their treatment of the plaintiff class."
According to plaintiffs' counsel David Klein "the duty to manage pension funds in a completely impartial manner is a special trust assigned to the trustees of pension plans. Unfortunately, in this instance equitability and impartiality were not tenets applied by the trustees."
For further information contact: David Klein. Klein Lyons, Suite 1100, 1333 West Broadway, Vancouver, B.C. (604) 874-7171
More information on this and other class actions can be found on the Class Action Newsline at www.primezone.com/ca