The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX) provides protection for corporate whistleblowers from retaliation by their employers. One area of the law that courts have focused on in recent years is the type of complaint that Sarbanes-Oxley covers.

A recent decision by the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Wiest v. Tyco Electric Corp increases protection for corporate whistleblowering employees under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

The Third Circuit (which includes Pennsylvania, Delaware and New Jersey) is the first federal Court of Appeals to approve the employee-friendly standard that the Administrative Review Board (ARB) of the Department of Labor announced in Sylvester v. Parexel LLC.

In Sylvester, the ARB ruled that a whistleblower could claim retaliation under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act based on a complaint that does not claim a specific violation of one of the fraud or securities laws.   Examples of violations of fraud or securities laws are:  mail fraud;  wire, radio, or TV fraud; securities fraud; violation of any rule or regulation of the Securities and Exchange Commission; or any provision of federal law relating to fraud against shareholders.

This Third Circuit ruling makes it easier for corporate whistleblowers to bring retaliation claims.  As long as an employee reasonably believes that his or her employer has engaged in fraud or securities law violations, then the employee is protected against retaliation as a corporate whistleblower —  regardless of whether the employer actually broke the law.

There are many important issues to consider in any corporate whistleblower case. Feinstein Doyle Payne & Kravec, LLC partner Joel Hurt can assist you in evaluating a potential whistleblower claim to be brought under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

Retiree Health Benefits Lawsuit Filed By Constellium Rolled Products Retirees

A retiree health benefits class action lawsuit was filed recently by Feinstein Doyle Payne & Kravec, LLC against Constellium Rolled Products Ravenswood, LLP. The class action lawsuit seeks to reinstate retiree health benefits the company recently cut.

The plaintiffs, who had been members of the United Steelworkers while they worked at the plant, retired from the Constellium plant in Ravenswood, West Virginia. This retiree health benefits class action lawsuit was filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia.
 
Partner Bill Payne is lead counsel on this retiree health benefits class action lawsuit. During his more than three decades of law practice, Bill has served as counsel for retirees or employees in more than 100 class action lawsuits throughout the United States. Many of those class action lawsuits challenged cuts in company-provided retiree health benefits.
 
Bill was appointed in 2006 to serve as class counsel to represent nearly 600,000 former UAW members (and their spouses) in actions against General Motors and Ford that were worth billions of dollars.
 
The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals complimented Mr. Payne by noting, “In view of Payne’s background, both classes would have been hard pressed to find someone with greater ‘experience in handling class actions … and claims of the type asserted in the action’ or an attorney with more `knowledge of the applicable law.” UAW v. GM, 497 F.3d 615, 628 (6th Cir. 2007).

Retiree Health Benefits Lawsuit – Cheatham v. RCA Rubber

In a retiree health benefits case entitled Cheatham v. RCA Rubber, Feinstein Doyle Payne & Kravec, LLC attorneys represent former Steelworker Union retirees in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee.
 
The retirees, from Pulaski, Tennessee, had worked under hazardous conditions in a rubber factory owned by Pulaski Rubber Company. The Pulaski retirees challenged their former employer’s termination of their retiree health benefits.
 
The court agreed that the Pulaski retiree health benefits were vested and that Pulaski had wrongfully terminated them. Judge Kevin H. Sharp declared, “Given the context in which labor negotiations occur, it is almost axiomatic that employees who forego wages now for the promise of retiree benefits in the future do so with the expectation that those benefits will continue through retirement.”
 
Judge Sharp further stated this was because these benefits are “typically understood as a form of delayed compensation or reward for past services.”
 
The battle to restore benefits for the Pulaski retirees is not over because the company was an insolvent subsidiary corporation. Judge Sharp has ordered a trial to determine whether the parent corporation should also be held liable. Trial is scheduled to take place in February 2013.
 
To review Judge Sharp’s Opinion, click here:
 
Opinion

Retiree Health Benefits Lawsuit Filed By Johnson Controls Retirees

Five retirees of Johnson Controls, Inc., represented by Feinstein Doyle Payne & Kravec, LLC attorneys Bill Payne and Joel Hurt filed a lawsuit against Johnson Controls, Inc. on December 31, 2012 in the US District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania. In their complaint, the retirees claim that Johnson Controls eliminated their retiree health benefits.

The Johnson Control retirees, who are former members of the United Auto Workers (UAW), claim that the elimination of their health insurance benefits is a violation of previous collective bargaining agreements that provided for lifetime benefits. The UAW had represented the workers and negotiated these important benefits. The workers had earned those benefits through their years of service at an air conditioner manufacturing plant in York, Pennsylvania. A copy of the Complaint may be found here.

Partner Bill Payne is lead counsel on the retiree health benefits lawsuit. During his more than three decades of law practice, Bill has served as counsel for retirees or employees in more than 100 class action lawsuits throughout the United States. Many of those class action lawsuits challenged cuts in company-provided retiree health care benefits.

In 2006, Bill was appointed as class counsel to represent nearly 600,000 former UAW members (and spouses of members) in actions against General Motors and Ford that were worth billions of dollars.

The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals noted: “In view of Payne’s background, both classes would have been hard pressed to find someone with greater ‘experience in handling class actions … and claims of the type asserted in the action’ or an attorney with more `knowledge of the applicable law.” UAW v. GM, 497 F.3d 615, 628 (6th Cir. 2007).

Settlement of an important civil rights lawsuit involving religious freedom was announced December 17, 2012.

This settlement affects the civil rights of rabbis and other Pennsylvania religious leaders. It also guarantees religious freedom for Pennsylvania religious leaders of any denomination or sect who perform ceremonies, customs, religious rites or practices. Such individuals are now excluded from the definition of “funeral director.”

Stephen Pincus represented Rabbi Daniel Wasserman, the Rabbi of Shaare Torah Congregation in Pittsburgh. After the Rabbi conducted a religious burial in 2009, a commercial funeral director accused him of breaking state law.

The funeral director reported the Rabbi to the State Board of Funeral Directors, opening an investigation by the Pennsylvania Bureau of Enforcement and Investigation. The Rabbi was investigated for 28 months for “practicing as a funeral director without a license.”

In August 2012, the Rabbi filed suit against the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in federal court in Harrisburg. This civil rights lawsuit claimed that the Rabbi’s religious freedom and rights under the First and Fourteenth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution, as well as under Article 1 of the Pennsylvania Constitution, had been violated.

The settlement provides that all religious leaders and their congregations in Pennsylvania are relieved of the definition of “funeral director.” The State Board of Funeral Directors must begin new enforcement procedures and the Pennsylvania Board of Professional and Occupational Affairs must train its attorneys, paralegals and investigators to make certain that the civil rights of individuals who perform religious burials are not violated.

“This settlement will have the important consequence of lifting the threat of investigation that has hung over the heads of Pennsylvania religious leaders of all faiths,” said Mr. Pincus. “This was a matter worth pursuing, not simply on the Rabbi’s behalf, but on behalf of the members of every temple, meeting, mosque or other religious congregations who are entitled to be buried as their religions dictate.”

Two news articles related to this civil rights settlement appear below:

Clergy to be Allowed to Conduct Funerals

Squirrel Hill Rabbi Declares Important Victory for Religious Freedom

Feinstein Doyle Payne & Kravec, LLC represents a nationwide class of consumers who paid for appraisals provided by First American eAppraiseIT (n/k/a CoreLogic, Inc.) in relation to Washington Mutual home loans.
 
Joe Kravec was appointed Co-Lead Counsel for a nationwide certified class of consumers who, after June 1, 2006, received appraisals obtained through eAppraiseIT in connection with home loans from Washington Mutual Bank, FA (“WMB”) for violation of  the anti-kickback provision of the Real Estate Settlement Practices Act (“RESPA”), 12 U.S.C. § 2607(a).
 
In its April 25, 2012 Order certifying the nationwide Class, the Court recognized that it previously sustained the action based on the plaintiffs’ theory that, “pursuant to an agreement, [eAppraiseIT] gave and WMB accepted inflated appraisals in exchange for WMB referring appraisal business to [eAppraiseIT]” in violation of RESPA § 8(a).
 
In certifying the nationwide Class, the Court found that “plaintiffs have alleged a single, overriding agreement and shown that some amount of common evidence exists from which a conspiracy could be inferred….  In addition, the mere fact that the relationship between [eAppraiseIT] and WMB was contentious does not demonstrate that they did not conspire to inflate appraisal values, and even if EA implemented policies designed to inflate appraisal values only in response to pressure from WMB, that may still constitute an agreement or understanding in violation of RESPA.”
 
According to the April 13, 2011 United States Senate Majority and Minority Staff Report, “Wall Street and the Financial Crisis: Anatomy of a Financial Collapse,” eAppraiseIT’s agreement to provide falsely inflated appraisals to WMB in exchange for WMB’s appraisal business was one of the schemes underlying the sub-prime mortgage crisis.
 
Notice of the Court’s certification of the action was sent to Class members on August 13, 2012, and the trial is currently schedule to begin on June 23, 2014. For more information, contact Attorney Joe Kravec.

Feinstein Doyle Payne & Kravec, LLC  is co-lead interim counsel and represents participants in the Regions Financial 401(k) Plan in seeking to recover losses to the Plan’s assets.
 
The suit alleges that Plan fiduciaries violated ERISA by investing in Regions stock while the company was concealing Regions Financial’s large exposure to very risky Collateralized Debt Obligations, subprime mortgages, and other poor-quality securities. The case is pending in the United States District Court for the Western District of Tennessee.  Discovery is ongoing.
 
By clicking the links, you can review the Corrected Third Amended Complaint Docket #251 – Plaintiffs’ Corrected Third Amended Consolidated Complaint, as well as the Court’s decisions granting in part and denying in part Defendants’ first set of motions to dismiss Docket #172 – Order Granting in Part and Denying in Part Ds’ First Motions to Dismiss and denying certain Defendants’ second set of motions to dismiss Docket #299 – Order denying certain Defendants’ second set of motions to dismiss.
 
For more information, please contact Attorneys Ellen Doyle, Pamina Ewing or Joel Hurt.

Retiree Health Benefits – Whirlpool (Hoover Vacuum)

Feinstein Doyle Payne & Kravec, LLC represents retirees from the Whirlpool (former Hoover Vacuum) plant in Canton, Ohio and their spouses. 

Whirlpool Corporation (Hoover Vacuum), which is now responsible for Hoover benefits, has threatened to drastically cut retiree health benefits effective January 1, 2014.

We have sued in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, and the court has certified this case as a class action. We have completed the discovery process, where the parties take depositions and produce documents, and we have fully brief summary judgment motions, in which each side is asking the court to rule in its favor based on the undisputed facts.

Retiree Health Benefits – Century Aluminum
 
Feinstein Doyle Payne & Kravec, LLC represents retirees of the Century Aluminum plant in Ravenswood, West Virginia who had their health benefits cut or eliminated.
 
The United States District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia denied the request for injunction. The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit affirmed the denial of the injunction, and the case is now back before the District Court.
 
For more information, please contact, Attorney Bill Payne.

Feinstein Doyle Payne & Kravec, LLC represents all of the workers’ compensation judges in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to restore a longevity step increase promised them in early January 2009.
 
For more information, please contact us.