Federal Court Approves Class Action Settlement In Anchor Glass Plant Closing Case
The lawyers at Kunkel & Fink, LLP are pleased to announce that by order dated July 24, 2009, United States District Court Judge David S. Cercone approved a $480,000.00 settlement of a class action lawsuit alleging a violation of the Worker Adjustment Retraining and Notification Act (“WARN Act”) with respect to the closing of the Anchor Glass plant located in Connellsville, Pennsylvania on November 4, 2004. Kunkel & Fink, LLP filed the lawsuit on behalf of the former Anchor Glass employees in a lawsuit that was captioned: Douglas P. Wissler and Gregory A. Vinoski v. Cerberus Capital Management, L.P., Cerberus International Ltd., Cerberus Institutional Partners, L.P., Cerberus Institutional Partners (America) L.P., and Stephen A. Feinberg, Civil Action No. 06-1042.
The WARN Act is a federal law that prohibits covered employers from ordering a plant closing or a mass layoff without first providing affected employees with sixty days notice of the closing or layoff. The policy underlying the WARN Act is to ensure that workers receive advance notice of plant closures and mass layoffs that affect their jobs so that they have time to adjust to their loss of employment and to obtain other employment.
The plaintiffs initially filed suit against Anchor Glass Container Corporation but that suit was dismissed when Anchor Glass filed for bankruptcy in August 2005. Subsequently, the plaintiffs filed suit against Cerberus Capital Management, L.P. and related entities that the plaintiffs alleged were the largest shareholders of Anchor Glass at that time of the Connellsville plant closing. The lawsuit charged that Anchor Glass failed to provide sixty days advance notice of the closing of its plant located in Connellsville, Pennsylvania on November 4, 2004, as required by the WARN Act, and that the Cerberus defendants could be held liable under the WARN Act based on their alleged de facto control over the corporation.
The settlement class covers approximately 275 former hourly employees who were notified on November 4, 2004 that the Connellsville plant was closing and that they were permanently laid off from their jobs. Under the terms of the Court-approved settlement, the settlement fund will be distributed equally to those members of the class who submitted timely claim forms in equal shares after a deduction for attorneys’ fees and costs as well premium payments for the named class representatives. While agreeing to the settlement, the Cerberus defendants denied at all times that they could be held liable under the WARN Act by virtue of their stock ownership or that Anchor Glass violated the WARN Act when it closed the Connellsville plant.
