ERISA Class Action Against Abbott and Hospira

Other News:

08/14/2006 -- Judge Allows Plaintiffs to Bring Additional Misrepresentation Claim Against Abbott (pdf)

12/30/2005 -- Judge Certifies Lawsuit As A Class Action (pdf)
09/15/2005 -- Plaintiffs Ask Judge To Allow Lawsuit To Proceed As A Class Action (pdf)

Welcome to the website for former employees of Abbott Laboratories alleging class action claims under the Employee Retirement Income Security Action of 1974 (“ERISA”) against Abbott Laboratories and Hospira, Inc.

This website was created by Sprenger + Lang PLLC and Meites, Mulder, Mollica & Glink, the two law firms representing the plaintiffs and class members in the lawsuit against Abbott and Hospira that was filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

Claims Against Abbott and Hospira
The Amended Complaint alleges, among other things, that Abbott violated Section 510 of ERISA when the company terminated employees of its Hospital Products Division and related businesses (“HPD”) during a spin-off of HPD into a new company, Hospira. Plaintiffs allege that Abbott Labs did this to prevent these employees from receiving employment benefits. Plaintiffs also allege that Abbott and Hospira adopted no-hire policies that prevented employees from transferring between the two companies for at least two years. These policies, according to the complaint, also interfere with the rights of HPD employees to receive employment benefits and, therefore, violate Section 510 of ERISA.  Plaintiffs also claim that even before the spin-off, Abbott knew, but failed to inform employees who were targeted to be spun off, that Hospira would freeze pension plan benefits and would not offer retirement medical benefits.  By making misrepresentations about future benefits and by failing to disclose what it knew, Abbott breached fiduciary duties imposed under ERISA.

Class Action Status
On December 30, 2005, Judge Gettleman of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois granted plaintiffs' request to certify their lawsuit as a class action. The judge's order allows all of the thousands of former Abbott employees who were terminated by Abbott between August 22, 2003, and April 30, 2004, as a result of its spin-off of Hospital Products Division to participate in and benefit from plaintiffs' lawsuit.  On April 3, 2007, Judge Gettleman ordered that additional misrepresentation and omission claims against Abbott would be certified on behalf of the same class of terminated employees.  The Judge has also certified a subclass against Hospria of all the former Abbott employees who were eligible for retirement on their day of termination.