Columbia Trustees Lose Bid to Trim Retirement Plan Class Action

The Trustees of Columbia University lost their bid to trim a class action challenging the school’s retirement plan when a Manhattan federal judge rejected their attempt to use a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision on pension plan standing as a reason to partially reconsider the case’s status as a class action.

The Supreme Court’s 2020 decision in Thole v. U.S. Bank NA, which held that a pension plan participant lacked standing to challenge alleged plan misconduct that didn’t jeopardize his ability to receive benefits, doesn’t prevent the Columbia plan participants from maintaining a class challenge to plan investments they ...