Requa case settlement

Plaintiff Joe Requa

Blog readers will know that a group of retirees from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory sued the Regents in 2010 when the lab's management was spun off and they experienced a cut in retiree health care benefits.*

At issue in the Requa case, indirectly, was the larger issue of whether the Regents had an obligation to provide retiree health care in a manner similar to the obligation to provide a pension, or whether retiree health care is just a nice thing the Regents choose to do. The official position of the Regents is that there is no obligation.

The risk for the Regents is that had the case gone to trial, and had the verdict been a win for the plaintiffs, there would then be a court decision potentially affecting all UC employees, not just those who had worked at Lawrence Livermore, saying retiree health was a legal obligation. On December 11th, a settlement agreement was filed which outlines a monetary settlement and appears to drop claims of Regental legal obligation. (The settlement has to be approved by the court, but approval is likely.)

The headline dollar value of the settlement is $84 million. Various legal and other documents are available at http://llnlretiree.com/uc-retirees-who-worked-lawrence-livermore-lab-reach-84-million-settlement-university-california. Below are some documents from the December 11th filing that indicate that there is no inference that the Regents have an obligation to provide for retiree health care. [Clicking on the images will enlarge and clarify them.]

Released claims:

Source: http://llnlretiree.com/sites/default/files/legal-documents/Memorandum%20of%20Points%20%26%20Authorities%20in%20Support%20of%20Petitioners%27%20Motion%20for%20Preliminary%20Approval%20of%20Joint%20Stipulation%20of%20Class%20Action%20Settlement%20%26%20Release.endorsed.pdf (p. 18)

More on released claims:

Source: http://llnlretiree.com/sites/default/files/legal-documents/%5BProposed%5D%20Order%20Granting%20Preliminary%20Approval%20of%20Stipulation%20of%20Class%20Action%20Settlement%20%26%20Release.pdf (p. 7)

Explanation to plaintiffs:

Source: http://llnlretiree.com/sites/default/files/legal-documents/Declaration%20of%20Scott%20H.%20Freeman.endorsed.pdf (p. 6)

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*http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2019/07/requiem-for-requap.html