Eight more public pension funds have joined Louisiana School...

Eight more public pension funds have joined Louisiana School Employees’ Retirement System, Baton Rouge, in filing a class-action lawsuit against Waste Management Inc. and certain officers and directors of the company, said Douglas M. McKeige, partner of Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossmann, the law firm representing the pension funds. Seeking lead plaintiff status as a group are: Detroit General Retirement System; Detroit Policemen & Firemen Retirement System; Jacksonville (Fla.) Fire & Police Pension Fund; City of Miami General Employees’ Retirement System; Houston Firefighters’ Relief & Retirement Fund; Louisiana State Employees’ Retirement System, Baton Rouge; Firefighters’ Retirement System of Louisiana, Baton Rouge; and City of New Orleans Employees’ Retirement System. According to Mr. McKeige, Waste Management overstated its publicly reported financial results for the first and second quarters. The company has restated its first-quarter results and projected a change in the second-quarter results. Senior executives named in the suit sold more than $70 million in Waste Management stock before the results were changed. From June 1998 through Aug. 2, the estimated aggregate loss for the group seeking the lead plaintiff role was $24 million. The case is in the briefing proceedings and no hearing date has been set.