Congrats to the Law Firm of Martin & Bonnett on their recent $35 million class action settlement against Honeywell.

The case arose when a group of former Garrett employees (a company that was later purchased by Honeywell) became concerned with how their pension benefits were being calculated. The group, the Garrett Retirees Action Committee, hired Martin & Bonnett to investigate their claims and hired an actuary to analyze the formulas associated with their pension calculations.

On July 26th, 2002 Martin & Bonnett filed a Claim Letter with Honeywell. Honeywell denied the claim and a Class Action lawsuit was filed against Honeywell on March 1, 2004. On November 5, 2007, the Court preliminarily approved a Partial Settlement in this case. The Partial Settlement does not resolve the 3 main issues in this case involving the Social Security and SBA Offsets. These claims continue to be litigated. The Partial Settlement does resolve the other issues of the case. The Partial Settlement provides for a recovery of $35 million with the potential to recover an additional $500 million if they are successful on the remaining main issues of the case. The details of the case can be found here.

Lead attorneys, Susan Martin & Daniel Bonnett, are both considered national authorities on ERISA law. They have several million and multi-million dollar verdicts and settlements for employees from around the country.