Hickory Springs Executive’s $5 Million Pension Suit to Continue

A former North Carolina furniture company executive who says his company failed to pay him most of his $5 million retirement package will have to continue litigating, after a federal judge on Friday rejected his request to resolve the case on the pleadings.

Judge Louise W. Flanagan of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina said she couldn’t resolve the dispute between David E. Colburn and Hickory Springs Manufacturing Co. without first reviewing the administrative record documenting the denial of Colburn’s benefits, along with Colburn’s appeal.

Flanagan’s opinion centered largely on which standard of judicial review ...