Renaker Hasselman Scott LLP and the National Center for Lesbian Rights have filed suit on behalf of David Reed, the surviving spouse of Donald Gardner, a long-time KRON-TV employee and participant in the KRON/IBEW Local 45 Pension Plan. The couple registered as domestic partners with the California Secretary of State in 2004. In 2009, Mr. Gardner retired, and the couple later married just before Mr. Gardner’s death in 2014. California law gives registered domestic partners the status of married persons. Although the pension plan terms incorporate California law, following Mr. Gardner’s death the plan refused to pay a surviving spouse benefit to Mr. Reed. The lawsuit challenges the plan’s refusal to pay the survivor benefit and also asserts claims for document disclosure penalties and breach of fiduciary duty.
Read the complaint in Reed v. KRON/IBEW Local 45 Pension Plan, et al.
Read the press release.