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Albertsons suit is settled

Former employees will divide $53.3-million.

By MARK ALBRIGHT
Published March 24, 2007

After an 11-year court battle, onetime Albertsons store produce manager Marc Rodman finally is getting a payday for hundreds of hours of overtime his employer expected him to work off the clock.

The Bradenton man, who left the supermarket chain in 1996, is among 7,000 former Albertsons workers - several hundred of whom worked in Florida stores - to share in a $53.3-million settlement approved this week by U.S. District Court Judge B. Lynn Winmill in Boise, Idaho.

The average payment will be about $7,500 per worker, although some of the 10 named plaintiffs like Rodman will get as much as $28,000. It's too late for former Albertsons workers to file a claim.

"It got to the point I never thought this was going happen during my lifetime," said Rodman, 60, who rewrote his will should the class-action lawsuit outlive him. "It was a very long time coming. I thank the company that agreed to the settlement, but I don't have anything good to say about the low-life spectrum that sold Albertsons to them."

He was referring partly to Larry Johnston, the former General Electric Inc. executive who got a $105-million payday for running Albertsons for five years only to sell it in pieces.

Albertsons Inc. announced it had settled the case in 2000 when it put aside $37.5-million to pay claims and $17.5-million to pay the lawyers. Things got bogged down for six years until the Boise supermarket giant was sold in 2006.

Private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management bought half the grocery stores, including those in Florida, which still operate as Albertsons. SuperValu Inc., a Minneapolis food retailer, bought more than 1,100 Albertsons elsewhere and, after the deal, was on the hook to defend or wrap up the case.

"I don't think the old Albertsons really had any intention of settling," said James Webster, the Seattle attorney who handled the suit, which was a consolidation of 10 suits from several states. "The sale sped things up and SuperValu has been very businesslike about getting this finally resolved."

Once claims were filed, it became apparent the former Albertsons management had set aside far less than the claims owed. The final attorneys' bill was $6.5-million in addition to the $53.3-million award.

Mark Albright can be reached at albright@sptimes.com">href="mailto:albright@sptimes.com" mce_href="mailto:albright@sptimes.com">albright@sptimes.com or 727 893-8252.

[Last modified March 23, 2007, 23:21:17]