Bailey & Glasser Awarded Class Action Against Wells Fargo in Management of Retirement Accounts

CHARLESTON, W.Va., April 26 /PRNewswire/ -- Bailey & Glasser, a Charleston, West Virginia-based law firm, has obtained class certification in Figas v. Wells Fargo & Co., D. Minn., No. 08-4546 by U.S. District Judge Paul A. Magnuson (Minnesota). The class consists of as many as 160,000 Wells Fargo employees who collectively invested billions of dollars in their 401(k) plan accounts in mutual funds managed by Wells Fargo Funds Management.

The plaintiffs allege that Wells Fargo violated federal pension law by putting its own interests ahead of the interests of its employees when Wells Fargo invested 401(k) plan retirement savings in mutual funds managed by Wells Fargo. The plaintiffs believe that their 401(k) plan investments would have done much better in investments unaffiliated with Wells Fargo.

The court rejected defendants' argument that the case was not suitable as a class action because some participants were "winners" and some were "losers" with respect to their investment in the Wells Fargo mutual funds.

"[T]he claims are brought on behalf of the plan itself, not on behalf of each individual who participated in the plan," the court wrote. "Thus, the focus is not on each participant's injury or lack thereof, but rather on injury to the plan." 

The court added that while some class members did not lose money on their investments, or did not lose as much money as Figas did, this would not defeat class certification. "[A] breach of fiduciary duty that causes no monetary harm is still a violation of ERISA," the court concluded.

Gregory Porter, a partner in Bailey & Glasser's Washington office, argued the motion for class certification on behalf of the plaintiffs. "We are pleased that the Court certified a class action and rejected defendants' arguments," said Porter. "Of late, we've seen a lot of opposition to class certification in pension cases that, frankly, stand the law on its head. We're glad the Court saw through those arguments."

The plaintiffs are represented by Bailey & Glasser's Washington, D.C. office; McTigue &  Veis, Washington, D.C., and Sprenger &  Lang, Washington, D.C.

Bailey & Glasser has offices in Charleston and Morgantown, WV, Washington, DC and Springfield, IL. The firm has a staff of 31 experienced and highly-educated lawyers, licensed in eleven (11) states. The firm's litigation practice focuses on high-stakes, complex litigation, including class and individual actions involving defective products, consumer finance, employee benefits, as well as criminal defense and complex regulatory proceedings. The firm also has a robust transactional practice, completing many multi-million dollar commodity transactions.

SOURCE Bailey & Glasser