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Attorneys for J.P. Morgan & Chase Co. have transferred to federal court a Florida lawsuit against the J.P. Morgan & Chase Co. retirement plan—the successor plan to the H.F. Ahmanson & Co. Retirement Plan—alleging J.P. Morgan & Chase wrongly reduced the rightful monthly payment amount of Thomas Wiley’s pension benefits as a participant vested in the plan.
Wiley is seeking restoration of his future pension benefits and to be paid by J.P. Morgan & Chase at the appropriate level.
In the complaint, originally filed in county court of Florida’s 15th Judicial Circuit in Palm Beach County, Wiley seeks the future pension payments “denied via an appeal decision rendered by Keven Nolan, executive director on behalf of JP Morgan Chase, on November 18, 2020,” according to the complaint.
Neither the reason for the benefit reduction, nor the reason for rejection of Wiley’s appeal to have the benefits restored was evident from court documents.
At J.P. Morgan’s motion, the lawsuit, Thomas P. Wiley v. JP Morgan Chase & Co., was moved on November 27 to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, West Palm Beach Division, as the claims fall under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974.
Wiley began working for H.F Ahmanson, the parent company of savings and loan association Home Savings of America, in 1986. He became fully vested in the H.F. Ahmanson & Co. Retail Savings Pension Plan provided by Home Savings of America in 1997. His employment with the company ended in 1999.
“The Plaintiff’s claim for benefits under his H.F. Ahmanson & Company Retirement Plan was reduced to a $555.87 monthly disbursement, a difference of $322.41 from his claimed monthly disbursement in the amount of $878.28, to commence on the first of the month following Plaintiff’s 65th birthday,” the complaint states.
The H.F. Ahmanson plan was subsumed by Washington Mutual in 1999, when the company merged with Washington Mutual. Wiley’s filing further states that on October 2, 2008, he received three letters from WaMu confirming his benefit amounts were correct.
The letters “honored, ratified, and confirmed the identical benefit amounts had carried over from the H.F. Ahmanson & Company Retirement Plan and were available and entitled to the Plaintiff under the WaMu Pension Plan, subsequent to the aforementioned corporate merger,” the complaint states.
The Washington Mutual plan’s merger into the J.P. Morgan Chase retirement plan took effect on December 31, 2012.
In January 2013, J.P. Morgan Chase informed Wiley, “the merger of the WAMU Plan into the JPMorgan Chase Plan will not change the method used to calculate your benefit earned under the WAMU Plan, including prior plan benefits, as in effect on December 31, 2012. The JPMorgan Chase Plan will simply assume the obligation to pay those benefits,” according to the Wiley court documents.
A J.P. Morgan Chase representative declined comment on the lawsuit.
Wiley is represented by the law offices of Robert M. Lewis LLC. Stephanie A. Segalini, an attorney with the law office of Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Moak & Stewart PC, represents J.P. Morgan Chase.
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