- The outcome brought long-awaited vindication for retirees who had faced years of financial uncertainty.
- Personal stories reveal deep emotional and economic hardship, including the loss of homes and having to forgo retirement.
- Jurors found evidence of mismanagement and misleading promises, emphasizing the need for transparency in pension oversight.
It was a victory that was a long time coming, but in this case, justice delayed was not justice denied. On Friday, December 12, a jury in the State of New York Supreme Court in Schenectady County found that the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany and several other defendants had mismanaged pension funds for over 1,100 retirees, denying them retirement income they had long counted on. The jury also determined that the defendants acted so wantonly and recklessly that punitive damages were warranted. The decision will result in plaintiffs receiving $54.2 million in restitution.
For Mary Hartshorne and other plaintiffs in the case, the jury’s verdict was a godsend. Since 2018, Mary and those who are also part of the suit have been waiting for this resolution, unsure if it would ever come to pass.
Personal Stories Underscore the Human Cost
When Mary retired from St. Clare’s Hospital in 2005 after nearly 30 years of service, she dreamed of peaceful mornings sitting by the fireplace in her lakeside home. Her promised pension — $864 a month — covered her mortgage and gave her security. But in 2018, Mary learned her pension was gone. At the age of 69, she was forced to sell her home and return to work assisting other seniors, relying on government benefits and family support to survive.
Jeanette Bearzi faced a different but equally painful reality. After 23 years working at St. Clare’s, Jeanette counted on her modest pension — $639 a month — to cover rent and medications. When the plan collapsed, she spiraled into housing insecurity, moving between friends’ homes, and battling worsening depression. At 70, despite chronic disabilities, Jeanette still works to survive. “I don’t know what I’ll do when I can’t work anymore,” she said.
These are only two of the 1,124 former St. Clare’s employees who were blindsided when the pension plan failed. Their heartbreak is at the center of Hartshorne v. Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany. In closing arguments, AARP Foundation attorneys urged accountability for broken promises. They explained that the Albany diocese and hospital leadership controlled the pension plan, failed to adequately fund it for years, neglected to insure the plan to protect its assets, and misled employees with repeated assurances of their retirement security — even as actuaries warned the plan would collapse…