Under an unusual procedure suspending its normal rules, the House of Representatives passed the Pension Annuitants Protection Act, allowing former plan participants to sue employers for overlooking their fiduciary duties in terminating plans and purchasing annuities to cover vested benefits.
The Senate already had passed the bill, and President Clinton is expected to sign it soon. The law will give former plan participants the right to sue sponsors that bought annuities from the now-defunct Executive Life Insurance Co.
The act, which extends to lawsuits filed after May 31, 1993, amends the Employee Retirement Income Security Act to provide protection to former pension participants and their beneficiaries.
