Singing River Health retirees get court date in new lawsuits over failed pension plan
Retirees will be back in court later this year over the Singing River Health System pension plan.
Circuit Court Judge Forest Johnson on May 12 denied a motion to dismiss a lawsuit brought by the retirees.
He set a court date for Dec. 5.
The lawsuits began in 2014, when Singing River hospitals, based in Pascagoula, announced that the pension plan was underfunded by $55 million.
The health system settled a class action lawsuit in 2016 which covered 3,173 current and former employees, most of whom did not actively participate in the litigation.
Other lawsuits remain against accounting firm KPMG LLP and retirement plan administrator Transamerica Retirement Solutions.
Those lawsuits allege misconduct and gross misconduct in performing services for the plan and the hospital.
Representatives of both companies asked the court to dismiss the claims on technical grounds, but the judge denied their requests.
“This ruling is a breakthrough and will allow us to now issue subpoenas and put the defendants under oath to get to the bottom of this fiasco and hopefully help retirees recover their losses,” said Jim Reeves, an attorney with of Reeves & Mestayer, who represents 350 retirees.
