Verizon defeats $1.67 billion pension suit

Verizon Communications Inc. defeated a group lawsuit over pension payments that may have cost the second-largest U.S. phone company about $1.67 billion.

Verizon has operations in Schaumburg.

Cynthia Young, who worked for more than 30 years at Verizon and predecessors including Bell Atlantic, claimed the company calculated pensions incorrectly in a class-action suit filed on behalf of employees in federal court in Chicago.

The complaint was brought after Verizon mistakenly included language in its pension plan documents, U.S. Magistrate Judge Morton Denlow wrote in a ruling issued yesterday. The mistake was in a formula for converting Bell Atlantic employees onto the same pension system following a series of mergers. The new calculations would have almost tripled the opening balances that some employees had accrued, according to the ruling.

Denlow concluded that Young and her co-workers "are not entitled to any additional plan benefit distributions by reason of this litigation." Denlow said the case "raises novel legal issues with billion dollar consequences" and will likely be appealed.

A message for plaintiffs' lawyer Jeffrey Engerman wasn't immediately returned.

Lordes Brezo-Martinez, a spokeswoman for Verizon's lawyers at Greenberg Traurig LLP, had no immediate comment.

Verizon, based in New York, fell 34 cents, or 1.2 percent, to $29.07 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The shares have dropped 14 percent this year.

The case is Young v. Verizon's Bell Atlantic Cash Balance Plan, 05 C 7314, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois (Chicago).