DUPONT EARLY RETIREMENT CLASS ACTION

Cockerill, et al. v. Corteva, Inc. DuPont Specialty Products USA, LLC, et al.

United States District Court Eastern District of Pennsylvania
Case No. 21-cv-03966-MMB

Judgment for Plaintiffs on Counts II, IV, and VI

After a six day bench trial held during June and September, 2024, on December 18, 2024, the Honorable Michael M. Baylson found in Plaintiffs’ favor on Count II (Claim for Benefits and to Clarify Benefits under 29 U.S.C. § 1132(a)(1)(B) by the Optional Retirement Class), Count IV (Claim for Breach of Fiduciary Duty, 29 U.S.C. § 1104, and Breach of Co-Fiduciary Duty, 29 U.S.C. § 1105 by both the Optional Retirement Class and the Early Retirement Class), and Count VI (Claim for Impermissible Cutback of Accrued Pension Benefits, 29 U.S.C. § 1054(g) by the Optional Retirement Class) of Plaintiffs’ Second Amended Complaint in this litigation. The Early Retirement Class is comprised of those who were under 50 with at least 15 years of service with E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. as of May 2019 and transferred to the newly created DuPont at the time of the spin-off on June 1, 2019. The Optional Retirement Class is comprised of those over 50 with at least 15 years of service as of May 31, 2019. You can read Judge Baylson’s Memorandum of Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law Regarding Liability here.

In finding for Plaintiffs on Count IV (Breach of Fiduciary Duty), the Court concluded:

[U]nder Count IV, Defendants breached their fiduciary duties to the Early Retirement Class (as well as the Optional Retirement Class) since Defendants’ communications and the SPD [Summary Plan Description] would not inform an Early Retirement Class Member of the fact that they were terminated. In sum, while the Plan interpretation was not unreasonable, Defendants nonetheless breached their duties to communicate that Plan interpretation clearly to the Early Retirement Class, thus breaching their fiduciary duties.

Judge Baylson has appointed Richard L. Bazelon, Esq. as Special Master in this case to oversee the next phase of the trial. The Order appointing Special Master Bazelon can be found here. The initial bench trial was limited to issues of liability. The Court has issued a scheduling order and expects to issue its Final Judgment by April 15, 2025.

Class Certification Granted

On November 17, 2023, the Honorable Michael M. Baylson granted class certification in this litigation. Judge Baylson certified two classes of workers: (i) an early retirement class, consisting of more than 500 individuals, and (ii) an optional retirement class, consisting of several thousand workers. The early retirement class consists of those who were under 50 with at least 15 years of service with E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. as of May 2019 and transferred to the newly created DuPont at the time of the spin-off in June 2019. The optional retirement class will consist of those over 50 with at least 15 years of service as of May 31, 2019. You can read the Memorandum regarding Class Certification here, and the Order here. Class notices were sent out in May, 2024. If you believe you are a member of the Early Retirement Class or the Optional Retirement Class and did not receive a notice, please contact us via email at eddie@edwardstonelaw.com.

Plaintiffs’ Allegations

Plaintiffs are current and former employees of DuPont Specialty Products who allege they were denied early retirement benefits and or optional retirement benefits after the 2019 DowDuPont spin-off that created three separate public companies: Corteva, Inc.; Dow, Inc.; and DuPont de Nemours, Inc. Plaintiffs allege that the spin-off was a strategy to deprive long-term employees of the benefits they earned through decades of service to their employer, in violation of ERISA’s protective purposes.

Plaintiffs’ Counsel

Edward Stone, Esq., Lisa A. Salmons, Esq., and Samantha L. Brener, Esq. of Edward Stone Law P.C., are working with Elizabeth Hopkins, Esq., Susan L. Meter, Esq., and Jacklyn Conover, Esq. of Kantor & Kantor, LLP and Daniel M. Feinberg, Esq., Todd Jackson, Esq., and Nina Wasow, Esq. of Feinberg, Jackson, Worthman & Wasow, LLP on this class action lawsuit.

For more information about this case, please email us at eddie@edwardstonelaw.com, call us at (203) 504-8425, or contact us using our contact form.

Case Status – Class Certification Granted

This case is pending in the United States District Court Eastern District of Pennsylvania under Case No. 21-cv-03966-MMB.

On November 17, 2023, the Honorable Michael M. Baylson granted class certification in this litigation. Judge Baylson certified two classes of workers: (i) an early retirement class, consisting of more than 500 individuals, and (ii) an optional retirement class, consisting of several thousand workers. The early retirement class consists of those who were under 50 with at least 15 years of service with E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. as of May 2019 and transferred to the newly created DuPont at the time of the spin-off in June 2019. The optional retirement class will consist of those over 50 with at least 15 years of service as of May 31, 2019. You can read the Memorandum regarding Class Certification here, and the Order here.

In his August 4, 2022 decision denying Defendants’ motion to dismiss the Complaint, the Judge Baylson stated:

“Reading the Complaint fairly, Plaintiffs have alleged conduct by the Defendants that could be in violation of ERISA, depending on the quality of proof, and rulings on the interpretation of the Plan, after discovery. From Third Circuit precedent, as cited by Plaintiffs, the Court must allow discovery on ERISA allegations that suggest misleading conduct and misrepresentations, as plaintiffs have done here. The so-called “spin off” might have been a strategy to deprive long-term employees of benefits they had reason to expect. ERISA provides for equitable remedies if plaintiffs are able to prove their claims.”

Discovery continues.

For more information about this case, please email us at eddie@edwardstonelaw.com, call us at (203) 504-8425, or contact us using our contact form.

Case Overview

Plaintiffs are participants in the Corteva Pension and Retirement Plan, formerly the U.S. DuPont Pension and Retirement Plan (the “Plan”). Plaintiffs brought this action on their own behalf and on behalf of all similarly situated participants, their beneficiaries, and estates, pursuant to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, as amended, 29 U.S.C. §1001 et seq. (“ERISA”) seeking, for themselves and on behalf of one or more classes of Plan participants and their beneficiaries, declaratory, permanent injunctive and other appropriate equitable and remedial plan-wide relief.

The Plan was created in 1904 and is one of the oldest retirement Plans in the United States. On December 11, 2015, the 217-year-old E.I. DuPont de Nemours and Company announced its intent to merge with Dow Chemical Company. The merger of Dow and DuPont closed on August 31, 2017, creating the combined entity DowDuPont. The merger was designed to combine the two entities and then spin-off into three separate public companies: Corteva, Inc., focusing on agricultural chemicals, a new Dow, Inc., focusing on materials science, and a new DuPont de Nemours, Inc., focusing on specialty product industries, the industry in which the Plaintiffs worked.

After the corporate spin-off and related transactions, Defendants improperly deprived Plaintiffs and the putative class members of certain early retirement benefits and optional retirement benefits expressly contemplated by the Plan and for which Plaintiffs and the putative class members counted on for many years, putting their own interests in front of the interests of class members in direct violation of ERISA and the terms of the Plan.