Verizon Beats Would-be Class Suit Over Pension Risk Transfers

Verizon Communications Inc. defeated a proposed class action by workers who said their retirement benefits were jeopardized when the company removed them from its pension plans in favor of annuities from Prudential and RGA.

The workers failed to show a substantial risk that they won’t receive their promised benefits, or that those benefits have diminished in value, Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein said in an order docketed Friday in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York. He dismissed their “overly speculative and conclusory” allegations for good, saying there was no injury giving them standing to press their ...