Retirement Systems of Alabama, Montgomery, reached a $445 million settlement with HealthSouth Corp. as the lead plaintiff in a class-action lawsuit against the health care provider, confirmed Sean Coffey, a partner with Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossmann, which represents the $27 billion fund. The suit alleged that HealthSouth implemented a scheme to falsify its financial statements between 1997 and 2003.
As a condition of the settlement, HealthSouth will turn over relevant materials and join the other class-action plaintiffs — which include the $18.7 billion Central States Southeast and Southwest Areas Teamsters Pension Fund, Rosemont, Ill.; the $12.9 billion New Mexico State Investment Council and the $7.7 billion Educational Retirement Board of New Mexico, both in Santa Fe — in a civil case against Richard M. Scrushy, HealthSouth's founder and former CEO. Mr. Scrushy was acquitted in June of criminal charges related to the HealthSouth case.
