Class Certified in Action against Lockheed Martin

Continuing the long line of cases regarding excessive 401(k) fees, 100,000 employees filed suit against Lockheed Martin claiming breach of fiduciary duty for failure to ensure that the employees were not harmed by the excessive fees charged by the plan providers. The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois certified the class (Abbot v. Lockheed Martin Corp., S.D. Ill., No. 06-cv-0701-MJR). The court certified two of the three claims, the third being a claim for imprudently diluting the returns of the company stock funds. The court ruled there was a conflict between the parties in the class with regard to who had invested in the company stock funds.