A class action has been filed against airborne shipping company Emery Worldwide Airlines, its parent company, CNF, Inc., and T. Rowe Price, who managed Emery's retirement accounts after Emery grounded its fleet, furloughed its employees and then denied the employees access to their retirement accounts. The action has been brought under the federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA).

Emery Worldwide was frequently cited by the FAA for safety violations and for failure to maintain its fleet at the minimum standard imposed by the government. After a crash that claimed several lives, the FAA, in August 2001, gave Emery the option of shutting down their operations or being shut down. The company chose to shut down voluntarily. As a result, approximately 2000 employees were placed immediately on furlough. Under the terms of the furlough, these employees received no compensation of any kind.

Struggling, the employees turned to their retirement accounts. However, much of the retirement funds depended on the status of CNF stock. With the market eying CNF stock, Emery feared that any sell-off or liquidation of retirement account assets would dilute the value of the stock even more. Therefore, the retirement funds were frozen on August 12, 2001, and employees were denied access of any kind to their accounts.

Shortly thereafter, the tragic events of September 11, 2001, unfolded. Despite the fact that capital markets, which comprised much of the employees' retirement investments, were collapsing, Emery employees were still denied access to their retirement accounts. Company insiders, on the other hand, were fully able to divest themselves of company stock, which was rapidly becoming worthless. On October 15, 2001, access to the retirement accounts was restored to Emery employees. However, at that point the value of the accounts had dwindled considerably due to the stagnation of capital markets.