US Labor Department files suit to restore losses to South Portland, Maine, retirement plan

Date of Action: October 6, 2014

Type of Action: Complaint

Name of Defendant: H.C. Watson Corp., doing business as Interim HealthCare, James C. Watson and Melissa Moore

Allegations: Based on an investigation conducted by the U.S. Department of Labor's Employee Benefits Security Administration, the department has filed a complaint alleging that the H.C. Watson Corp. Deferred Savings and Profit-Sharing Plan was established in March 1987 to provide retirement benefits for employees of H.C. Watson Corp., doing business as Interim HealthCare. The company is currently located in South Portland, Maine, but has or has had operations in Massachusetts, New York and Rhode Island as well. In addition to the company itself, defendants James C. Watson and Melissa Moore were the plan's fiduciaries and responsible for ensuring that employee contributions to the plan were deducted from employees' paychecks and that the contributions and loan repayments were forwarded to the plan in a timely manner. According to the Complaint, beginning in at least February 2011 defendants failed to take appropriate measures to do so, a violation of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act. The unremitted employee contributions total at least $122,048 and the unremitted loan repayments total about $30,575. The Department also alleges that HCW Corp. has failed to file a Form 5500 with the Labor Department since 2010, a requirement under ERISA.

Resolution: The complaint asks the court to: require the defendants to correct all the prohibited transactions and restore to the plan all losses resulting from their breach of their fiduciary duties, prohibited transactions and other violations. This includes offsetting the defendants Watson and Moore's plan balances to be used for the benefit of non-fiduciary plant participants. The suit also seeks to permanently prohibit the defendants from future ERISA violations and prohibit defendants' Watson and Moore from serving as a fiduciary for any ERISA-covered plan.

Court: U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts

Docket Number: 1:14-cv-13797

U.S. Department of Labor materials are accessible at www.dol.gov. The information above is available in large print, Braille, audio tape or disc from the COAST office upon request by calling (202) 693-7828 or TTY (202) 693-7755.