Duke reached a $2.35 million settlement agreement last week in response to a 2023 class-action lawsuit filed by retired Duke Health nurse Joy Franklin, who alleged that the University had been underpaying her and other former employees’ retirement benefits.
Duke had previously announced its intention to settle in January, weeks before oral arguments on an appeal were set to begin. The motion for preliminary approval of the settlement agreement was filed Sept. 15 and must be approved by a district court.
In the lawsuit Franklin claimed the University had used an outdated methodology to calculate retirement payments, resulting in a loss of millions of dollars to over 700 retired Duke employees and directly violating the Employee Retirement Income Security Act. Franklin claimed personal losses of over $10,300 in benefits since March 2018…