Appeals Court Reinstates Pension Suit Against Washington U

A federal appeals court on Friday partially reinstated a lawsuit alleging that Washington University in St. Louis had mismanaged employees' retirement savings accounts, one of a series of such suits against major universities around the United States. The ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit overturned in part a lower court's decision that dismissed the lawsuit entirely. On appeal, a three-judge panel of the Sixth Circuit said it found sufficient evidence to infer that the university may have engaged in mismanagement by failing to adequately negotiate the fees employees paid to investment companies. The appeals panel, upholding the lower court's decision, rejected the employees' other claim -- that the university kept underperforming investments in the plan for too long.