Today, the Seventh Circuit affirmed a decision of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois in Nauman v. Abbott Labs. and Hospira, Inc. in favor of TDR client Hospira, Inc. and its former parent company, Abbott Laboratories, and awarded both companies their costs on appeal.
In the lawsuit, originally filed in 2004 and tried over 9 days in 2009, a class of approximately 10,000 employees claimed that Hospira and Abbott had intentionally interfered with their retirement benefits in violation of ERISA. The Seventh Circuit concluded, however, that the District Court correctly determined that the plaintiffs failed to prove that either Hospira or Abbott acted with the specific intent to interfere with their use of pension benefits when Abbott decided to spin-off Hospira or when the defendants adopted reciprocal policies not to hire former employees or retirees for two years after the spin-off.
The full opinion can be found here. TDR attorneys Christopher D. Liguori, Daniel I. Konieczny, and Brian C. Haussmann represented Hospira at trial and on appeal.