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This case is now concluded:  The Court has issued its Final Order and Judgment approving the settlement and the Payment Spreadsheet has been filed with the Court (under seal, to protect Class members' privacy).  Colgate has until June 18, 2026 to make lump sum payments of the back payments due for prior missed annuity payments, and to begin making monthly annuity payments for all living Participant and Spouse Class members entitled to payment. Absent special circumstances, if payments are not timely made, Colgate will be liable for 5% interest on payments beyond the Payment Date.  Heirs (“successors”) of deceased Class members who still have questions regarding how to provide Colgate with completed Successor Information Forms and required attachments should contact the Colgate Pension Service Center at (888) 982-7227 or the Notice Administrator at (833) 215-9289 or colgate@classinfosource.com.  See also Deceased Class Members.

Welcome to the McCutcheon v. Colgate-Palmolive Co. Class Action Website.  

The parties to this federal pension benefit class action – Plaintiff Rebecca McCutcheon on behalf of herself and the Class (defined below), and Defendants Colgate-Palmolive Co. (“Colgate”), Colgate-Palmolive Co. Employees’ Ret. Income Plan (the “Plan”), the Employee Relations Committee of Colgate-Palmolive Co. (the “Committee”), and two former Committee members (collectively, “Defendants”) – reached an agreement to settle it.  The lawsuit, filed in 2016, alleged that the Plan failed to pay Class members, as a required supplement to the lump sums that Class members originally received, residual annuities (“RAs”) calculated in accordance with the 2005 Residual Annuity Amendment (the “RAA”) and the federal pension law known as “ERISA” (the Employee Retirement Income Security Act). 

This website, created by Class counsel, is designed to help you understand the settlement, finally approved by the Court on January 14, 2026, and review copies of the relevant documents.

Under the agreement, Defendants will pay a total of $332 million, to be distributed to the 1,177 members of the Class, net of attorney’s fees and expenses approved by the Court, using the amount that Ms. McCutcheon and Class Counsel argued the Plan should be paying you and should have paid you as an annuity (retroactive to your original lump sum payment date, which includes an adjustment for any prior annuity payments you may have received, and any retroactive annuity payment you may have received around 2014), brought forward with interest, minus a pro rata discount in exchange for Defendants’ agreement to settle. 

Plaintiff and Class counsel agreed to the settlement because it provides an expeditious route to certain recovery for all Class members, and the settlement amount is nearly 100% of the residual annuities Plaintiff and Class Counsel claimed they are owed, brought forward with interest until today, calculated exactly as Plaintiff and Class Counsel claimed they should be calculated.