On July 21, 2003, the court gave final approval to the parties' $1.95 million settlement in an action filed against West Seattle conglomerate Services Group of America, Inc. on behalf of persons who participated in the company's profit-sharing and retirement savings plan between October 8, 1998, and April 30, 1999. The action alleged that company president Thomas Stewart and the board that administered the profit-sharing plan violated their fiduciary duties under the federal Employee Retirement Insurance and Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) when they mismanaged the plan. Eligible claimants should contact the attorneys for the class.

The action alleged that in October 1998, Stewart and eight other members of the committee that oversaw the profit-sharing plan abruptly pulled its $30 million in assets out of a balanced portfolio of stocks and bonds and parked the money in very conservative, low-yielding Treasury securities and money-market funds out of concern that the Asian financial crisis and Russia's billion-dollar default would send stock prices crashing. It turned out that the switch took place at almost exactly the worst time. From October 8, 1998, to April 30, 1999--after which Services Group of America gave its employees the responsibility of deciding how to invest their own profit-sharing money--the Russell 3000 equity index soared 40.5 percent, while the conservative Treasury and money-market investments gained only 6.25 percent.

The action alleged not only that the committee's investment switch was hasty and ill-informed but that the workers were not told of it until December 1998. The action sought damages termed as opportunity losses: the money they would have made had their profit-sharing money remained invested in the diversified stock-bond portfolio.

More than 1,600 current and former Services Group of America workers will split the settlement money, after yet-to-be-determined attorney's fees and court costs are deducted.