In re Ikon Office Solutions, Inc.

191 F.R.D. 457, 24 Employee Benefits Cas. (BNA) 2008, 2000 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2749, 2000 WL 276916
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Pennsylvania
DecidedMarch 13, 2000
DocketNos. MDL 1318, 00-87
StatusPublished
Cited by51 cases

This text of 191 F.R.D. 457 (In re Ikon Office Solutions, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In re Ikon Office Solutions, Inc., 191 F.R.D. 457, 24 Employee Benefits Cas. (BNA) 2008, 2000 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2749, 2000 WL 276916 (E.D. Pa. 2000).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM & ORDER

KATZ, Senior District Judge.

Before the court is plaintiffs’ motion for certification of a class of plaintiffs who were participants or beneficiaries in the defendants’ retirement savings plan. Because the court finds that the proposed class meets the requirements of Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23 and that certifying the class at this time will facilitate the fair and efficient resolution of this matter, the motion will be granted.

[460]*460I. Background

The two named plaintiffs, Julia Whetman and Judy Peterson, are former Ikon employees who invested in their employer’s retirement savings plan. They seek to litigate claims alleging breach of fiduciary duty under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) on a class-wide basis.1 See 2d Am. & Supp. Compl. ¶¶ 182-203 (alleging violations of ERISA); see also 29 U.S.C. § 1104 (establishing fiduciary duty); 29 U.S.C. § 1132(a)(2), (3) (establishing cause of action).

In its memorandum and order addressing the motion to dismiss filed in this action, the court summarized the plans at issue. The plan was originally adopted by Ikon’s predecessor, Aleo Standard,2 on January 1, 1975. Until October 1,1995, it was a pure employee stock ownership plan (ESOP), in which all contributions were invested in employer stock. As of October 1, 1995, the plan was amended to include a “self-directed” component by which employees could direct their own contribution to any of several funds, one of which was an employer stock fund. Even after October 1, however, the employer’s contribution was maintained as an ESOP, as these contributions went only into employer stock. See Mem. and Order of Mar. 1, 2000, at 13.

Plaintiffs3 allege that Ikon and individual defendants breached their fiduciary duties in several ways.4 Plaintiffs claim that the alleged fiduciaries acted improperly by investing the company’s matching contribution solely in Ikon stock notwithstanding purported knowledge of Ikon’s failing financial status, including knowledge of actual fraud perpetrated by the company. Similarly, plaintiffs claim that th,e alleged fiduciaries failed to inform plan participants of Ikon’s financial difficulties and, in fact, made affirmatively inaccurate statements regarding the company’s strength and the plan itself. According to plaintiffs, these breaches led to financial disaster for their retirement investments when Ikon’s stock fell sharply following a $110 million charge to earnings taken on August 14, 1998, which was directly related to the alleged financial improprieties just mentioned.

The court has already certified a class in In re Ikon Securities Litigation, the securities action originally filed in Pennsylvania with which the Utah case was consolidated. On March 15, 1999, the parties stipulated to, and the court approved, a class consisting of

All persons who purchased or otherwise acquired common stock and/or call options of Aleo Standard Corp. and/or IKON Office Solutions, Inc. during the period from January 1,1997 through and including August 13, 1998; or “when issued” common stock of Aleo Standard Corp. during the period from December 9, 1996, through and including December 31, 1996; or convertible preferred stock of Aleo Standard Corp. and/or IKON Office Solutions, Inc., during the period from December 16,1996, through and including August 13, 1998. Excluded from the Class are defendants, the officers and directors of IKON, members of the immediate families of such officers and directors, and subsidiaries and affiliates of the defendants.

Order of March 15, 1999. Subsequently, the court preliminarily approved a settlement class consisting of

[461]*461a. all persons who purchased or otherwise acquired common stock, convertible preferred stock, and/or call options of Aleo Standard Corp. and/or IKON during the period from January 24, 1996 through and including August 13, 1998 other than the members of the Certified Class who do not timely exclude themselves from the Settlement Class; and
b. all persons who excluded themselves from the Certified Class but who, pursuant to the Settlement, request inclusion in the Settlement Class for the purpose of being able to participate in the Settlement.

Preliminary Approval Order of December 30, 1999, at 2. In the same order, the court also preliminarily approved a settlement for this Global Class. If the settlement is ultimately approved, putative class members who do not opt out of the settlement will “release and forever discharge” all “Settled Claims,” defined to include claims in which “the injury alleged is that the Global Class member or a trust or other ERISA related entity of which the Global Class member is a beneficiary or participant was caused to acquire or did acquire, directly or indirectly, IKON Securities at wrongfully inflated prices during the Class Period.” Notice of Pendency of Class Action ¶ 25 (“Terms of the Settlement”). A fairness healing on this settlement is scheduled for April 11,2000.

Although the original motion for certification of an ERISA class suggested that certification would be proper under any of the subsections of Rule 23(b), see Mot. for Class Cert, at 10-11, the plaintiffs now request class certification under Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 23(a) and 23(b)(1) only. See Plf. Reply Mem. of Feb. 7, 2000, at 7,10; Plf. Mem. of Mai-. 7, 2000, at 1. Plaintiffs now propose the following class:

The ERISA Class consists of all participants and beneficiaries of the Aleo Standard Corporation Retirement Savings Plan or the IKON Office Solutions, Inc. Retirement Savings Plan (collectively without distinction the “Plan”) at any time after September 30, 1995, who suffered losses recognized under ERISA with respect to investments in the Aleo Stock Fund or IKON Stock Fund. If the settlement described in the Notice of Pendency of Class Action Proposed Settlement and hearing Thereon, dated January 14, 2000 (the Securities Litigation Notice) is approved, the losses suffered by members of the ERISA Class who are also members of the “Global Class” (as defined in the Securities Litigation Notice) and do not opt out of such Global Class shall exclude losses of ERISA Class members that are due to acquisitions, directly or indirectly, of “IKON Securities” at wrongfully inflated prices during the “Class Period” (as those terms are used in the Securities Litigation Notice).

Plf. Proposed Order, Mem. of Mar. 7, 2000 (Ex. 1).

Although the defendants originally contended that no ERISA class could be certified, discussion at the February 25, 2000 hearing on this subject demonstrated that the parties disagreed more on the nature of the class than on whether one ought to be certified. After an unsuccessful effort to reach consensus on the class definition, the defendants submitted the following proposed definition:

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Bluebook (online)
191 F.R.D. 457, 24 Employee Benefits Cas. (BNA) 2008, 2000 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2749, 2000 WL 276916, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-ikon-office-solutions-inc-paed-2000.