Snitzer v. The Board of Trustees of the American Federation of Musicians and Employers' Pension Fund

District Court, S.D. New York·Decided July 20, 2020·No. 1:17-cv-05361·Unknown

Opinion

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK USDC SDNY ANDREW SNITZER and PAUL LIVANT, individually DOCUMENT : . ELECTRONICALLY FILED and as representatives of a class of similarly situated persons, on behalf of the American Federation of Dare WLED. 073000207 Musicians and Employers’ Pension Plan, Tn Plaintiffs, v. THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE AMERICAN FEDERATION OF MUSICIANS AND EMPLOYERS’ No. 1:17-cv-5361 (VEC) PENSION FUND, THE INVESTMENT COMMITTEE OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE ORDER AMERICAN FEDERATION OF MUSICIANS AND EMPLOYERS’ PENSION FUND, RAYMOND M. HAIR, JR., AUGUSTINO GAGLIARDI, GARY MATTS, WILLIAM MORIARITY, BRIAN F. ROOD, LAURA ROSS, VINCE TROMBETTA, PHILLIP E. YAO, CHRISTOPHER J.G. BROCKMEYER, MICHAEL DEMARTINI, ELLIOT H. GREENE, ROBERT W. JOHNSON, ALAN H. RAPHAEL, JEFFREY RUTHIZER, BILL THOMAS, JOANN KESSLER, MARION PRESTON, Defendants.

VALERIE CAPRONI, United States District Judge: IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that the attached objections are filed on ECF for purposes of maintaining an accurate public record.

SO ORDERED. . .

Date: July 20, 2020 VALERIE CAPRONI New York, New York United States District Judge

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STATEMENT OF OBJECTIONS

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK ween ence neenneennneenne XK IN RE: SNITZER AND LIVANT vy. THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE AMERICAN FEDERATION OF MUSICIANS AND EMPLOYERS’ PENSION FUND, ET AL., No. 1:17-cv-05361-VEC eatienmaramnaname ne □□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□ Statement of Objections I] am a member of the plaintiff class in the above-identified case, In re Snitzer. I am a class member because I was a participant in the American Federation of Musicians and Employers’ Pension Fund during the class period. I object to the settlement in this lawsuit. My reasons for objecting are: 1. Defendants Raymond Hair and Christopher Brockmeyer should not be permitted to retain their positions on the Board of Trustees, controlling the futures of the 50,000 participants of the AEM-EPR. Plaintiffs have proven that Defendants did not act reasonably or prudently in their management of the Fund. Time and again, over the course of at least seven years, Defendants egregiously breached the fiduciary duties they owe to the Plan Participants, and have obliterated the future financial security of more than 50,000 Plan Participants. Defendants have demonstrated gross negligence and incompetence in their management of the Fund, and should be removed. In the AFM Web Notifications Pension Fund Notes of 3/29/2020 the trustees strenuously defend their disastrous investment decisions of the past

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ten years and indicate that this settlement will not cause then to make any changes to their strategies whatsoever.

2. The Neutral Independent Fiduciary has no actual authority to effect any change. At the very least, the Neutral Independent Fiduciary should be permitted to communicate directly with Plan Participants, and should provide quarterly updates to Plan Participants on the status of the Fund, Plaintiffs have demonstrated that Defendants repeatedly failed to communicate the critical and declining status of the Fund. Defendants’ risky investment strategies continued unabated for years, while Plan Participants remained completely in the dark. In addition, Plaintiffs have proven that while prudent investment options and expert advice were provided to Defendants at many turns, Defendants ignored such advice and instead made riskier and riskier investment decisions, Plaintiffs cannot rely on Defendants to honestly communicate the status of the Fund, nor to adhere to any expert advice that might be provided by the Neutral Independent Fiduciary, who, regardless of whether he can provide a voice of reason, has no real power to effect any changes in decisions approved by the Board.

3. Plan Participants should be permitted to opt out of the Settlement. As noted above and below, the Settlement Agreement is lacking in substantive relief. Plan Participants should be permitted an option to reserve the right to bring suit at a later date.

4, The Settlement Agreement is generally lacking in any meaningful substantive relief. Defendants remain in their positions with nearly unlimited ability to continue their risky practices. The Neutral Independent Fiduciary has a severely limited role, and almost certainly will be unable to effect any real change. Defendants will be able to continue their misleading and slanted communications with Plan Participants about the status of the Fund.

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Finally, Plaintiffs will be required to forever release all claims against Defendants, despite having received almost no substantive relief. Even a brief review of the Settlement Agreement makes clear that the Agreement has no substantive relief.

5. The award provided to Plaintiffs’ counsel should be reduced. Plaintiffs’ counsel argues that their award is fair because they have provided substantial non-monetary relief. However, as noted in detail above, little non-monetary relief has been provided to Plaintiffs. Plaintiffs’ Counsel is well aware of the limited monetary relief that is obtainable through Defendants’ insurance policy, and from all appearances, this knowledge is driving their motivation to settle this lawsuit at the current time, regardless of whether any true substantive non- monetary relief has actually been obtained for Plaintiffs. In addition, the hourly billable rate provided by Plaintiffs’ counsel is egregiously inflated. The hourly rates of $835,$751 and $580 respectively for senior partners, junior partners and senior associates are unusual in nearly any market in the United States. Indeed, the ABA recently published an article that noted that the most expensive partner hourly rate by practice area clocked in at $678 (for mergers and acquisitions).! The same article notes that even in a relatively expensive geographical area such as California, the median partner hourly rate is $500. Plaintiffs’ counsel practice in Haverford, Pennsylvania, a relatively low cost area. The monetary award of $7.94 million for 13000 hours of work is a windfall for Plaintiffs’ counsel, by any standard. nace qanerrnenenee 2 □□ Tt ER. hy % Ge ai □□ □ CEIWE ae JuLO9220 □ VALE eo □□ US.mSsrec . . se Nearest 1 See https://www.abajournal.com/news/article/ partner_rate_increases_growing and more _widespread_new report says

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My Personal Information Name: Christopher Deschene Address: 719 Emory Drive, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 27517 Email Address: christopher.deschene@gmail.com Telephone Number: 919-933-2402

Fairness Hearing Statement: I do not intend to appear at the Fairness Hearing, either in person or through my attorney.

Dated: Monday, June 29, 2020 A Signed: LULZ en Printed Name: Christopher Deschene ~

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Snitzer v. The Board of Trustees of the American Federation of Musicians and Employers' Pension Fund, (S.D.N.Y. 2020).

Snitzer v. The Board of Trustees of the American Federation of Musicians and Employers' Pension Fund (Snitzer v. The Board of Trustees of the American Federation of Musicians and Employers' Pension Fund) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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