Xerox Corporation has been ordered by a federal court to pay nearly $4.9 million to lawyers who represented clients in a pension suit against the company.
The workers filed suit 16 years ago, claiming the company was applying a mechanism that reduced their pensions after they left the company and then returned.
Since then, their suit for violation of the federal Employment Retirement Income Security Act, or ERISA, has been through two federal appeals courts and even the U.S. Supreme Court.
Judge David Larimer ruled last week in Rochester that the attorneys are due the money because of the lengthy and complex case, and because it will tend to discourage ERISA violations.
Xerox hasn’t commented.