KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) – A class action lawsuit has been filed against a metro area law firm for the alleged misuse of employee retirement funds.
Attorneys with Sanford Heisler Sharp McKnight and Fell Law firms announced on Tuesday, Sept. 16, that a class action complaint has been filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri.
The complaint claims the law firm Husch Blackwell LLP and members of its Executive Board have breached their fiduciary duties under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.
“ERISA’s fiduciary duties are the highest known in the law. Employees should be able to trust that when their employer withholds retirement plan contributions from their paycheck, those funds will go directly to their retirement savings, not into the employer’s pocket,” said Charles Field, Sanford Heisler’s Co-Vice Chairman and counsel for Plaintiff. “To divert employees’ retirement plan contributions to pay for operating expenses is a total betrayal of that trust.”
According to the allegations, Husch Blackwell withheld funds from employee paychecks under the guise of depositing them to the employees’ Husch Blackwell 401(k) Trust Fund.
However, complainants said that money was not contributed to their plans in a timely manner. Instead, they kept the funds in the firm’s general operating account for months at a time and used the money to pay the firm’s operating expenses.
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The suit also claims that Husch Blackwell created a large pool of assets inaccessible to beneficiaries. The actions deprived them of chances to seek returns on their retirement funds.
The attorneys indicated that through these actions, the defendants violated the anti-inurement provision of the ERISA, breached fiduciary duties and engaged in transactions barred by ERISA.
Sanford Heisler Sharp McKnight and Fell noted that the suit was filed on behalf of Tyler M. Paetkau for around 400 affected employees.
“Law firms should not be able to shift the financial burden of their operations onto their employees. We hope lawsuits such as Mr. Paetkau’s are able to reverse and rectify such practices,” said Bibi Fell, Founder of Fell Law, PC and counsel for Plaintiff and the proposed class.
The attorneys said they filed the complaint on the heels of several significant class settlements. Most recently, the firm obtained a $69 million settlement in a class action against UnitedHealth Group.
KCTV5 has reached out to Husch Blackwell for comment. However, a reply has not been received. No further information has been released.
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