At Deadline

The sale of AMR Investment Services has been slowed by questions of how to value the $11 billion in American Airlines pension and 401(k) assets managed by the firm, according to industry sources. Insiders say potential buyers are looking carefully at how the assets could be affected by a bankruptcy filing by AMR Corp., parent to American Airlines and AMR Investment.

Pension plans can sue actuaries and other professional consultants for malpractice under state law, although such suits are barred by federal pension law, a federal appeals court ruled.

The decision by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Alfred G. Gerosa vs. Neil J. Savasta allows the $30 million Cement Masons' Local 780 Pension Fund to sue its former actuary, Savasta & Co. Inc., in connection with a $10 million shortfall the plan claims resulted from a miscalculation of its funded status in the mid-1990s.

The lawsuit will now go back to the U.S. District Court judge.