Ex-Workers Sue Times Mirror

A group of Dallas Times Herald employees filed suit Thursday in U.S. district court against the newspaper’s former owner, Times Mirror Co., for failing to comply with terms of the company pension plan and refusing to terminate the plan and distribute its assets.

The suit alleges that Times Mirror, the Los Angeles-based media group that owned the Times Herald from 1969 to 1986, signed an agreement not to terminate or amend the pension plan at the time of its sale in 1986 to a media company led by William Dean Singleton.

The suit asks the court to stop a proposed merger of the plan and to distribute its assets to participants.

“The lawsuit involves some technical issues of pension and contract law on which it would not be appropriate to comment without studying the complaint,” said Durham J. Monsma, Times Mirror’s director of human resources and risk management. “However, our attorneys have been in contact with plaintiffs’ counsel and we hope that the issues can be resolved without prolonged litigation.”

Kept Control of Plan

About 800 current and former Times Herald employees are covered in the plan. The plaintiffs--current and former Times Herald employees Ron Calhoun, Helen Connor, Charles Dameron, C. D. Fletcher, Jim Henderson and Carolyn Robinson--represent those covered in the plan.

The suit alleges that Times Mirror, which also owns the Los Angeles Times, wants to take $15 million of the $27 million in the pension plan for its own use, despite the fact that it has contributed less than $1 million to it for 19 years. Times Mirror has said the plan’s overfunding resulted largely from a rise in Times Mirror stock, which was exchanged for Times Herald shares when the paper was acquired in 1969.

Times Mirror kept control of the plan after selling the paper to Singleton but at that time ceased benefit accruals and signaled its intent to terminate the plan.

In August, Times Mirror filed formal notice to terminate the plan and take excess funds of about $15 million but withdrew the notice after being notified that plan participants claimed all excess assets.

In November, Times Mirror filed notice to merge the plan with another employee benefits plan it controls. It withdrew that notice Dec. 23 amid numerous complaints from participants. Times Mirror has said the merger was an effort to preserve the plan’s tax qualification pending some new regulations and that the merger was called off after regulations made clear that the tax qualification was not in doubt.