Judge Tosses Suit Saying Pilots Got Sham Divorces

Harry R Weber

ABC News

A federal judge Monday tossed out a Continental Airlines Inc. lawsuit accusing nine pilots of getting sham divorces so their ex-spouses could collect the pilots' retirement benefits while they kept flying. U.S. District Judge Gray Miller said he can't condone the pilots' alleged actions. But he ruled that the law doesn't allow Continental's pension administrator to consider the employees' motivation for getting divorced in deciding whether to distribute benefits. Miller granted the pilots' motion to dismiss.

An appeal was being considered by Houston-based Continental, which said it paid out between $10 million and $11 million in suspicious pension distributions. Some individual payments were as much as $900,000, according to court papers. The airline said some of the pilots concealed the divorces from children and friends, then remarried their spouses after getting the money.

Source: http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=8865108