BBQ Chain Workers Get Class Treatment in ESOP Transaction Suit

Former employees of a barbecue restaurant chain can band together as a certified class to challenge Argent Trust Co.‘s handling of their employee stock ownership plan, a federal judge ruled.

Judge Denise L. Cote on Oct. 31 certified a class of more than 1,000 vested participants in the WBBQ Holdings Inc. ESOP after July 2016, along with their beneficiaries.

The defendants, which include WBBQ’s founder and its chief executive officer, argued class certification was improper because the workers’ Employee Retirement Income Security Act claims are already “inherently representative.” Cote disagreed, saying they’d pointed to no authority suggesting that the ...