Southern Co. Pension Math Suit by Married Retirees Falls Flat

A subsidiary of energy provider Southern Co. defeated a proposed class action by married retirees who say their pensions were improperly shortchanged because they were calculated using decades-old actuarial data.

The retirees said Southern Co. Services Inc. violated the Employee Retirement Income Security Act by calculating their pensions using unreasonable actuarial assumptions that didn’t reflect recent increases in lifespan. But neither ERISA nor a controlling regulation explicitly requires that these actuarial assumptions be “reasonable,” which is fatal to the retirees’ lawsuit, Judge Steve C. Jones of the US District Court for the Northern District of Georgia said Tuesday.

Jones called ...