Skip to main content

DuPont/Corteva Early Retirement Case

Case Overview

This class-action ERISA lawsuit challenges the elimination or reduction of early retirement benefits around which many employees of the Dupont company planned their careers following the spin-off by Dupont of a former subsidiary, Corteva Agriscience. The suit was filed in 2021 by two such employees, Robert F. Cockerill and Christopher W. Newton, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, and was later joined by Oliver Major and Darrell Benson.

Retirement benefits attorneys at Kantor & Kantor, with co-counsel Edward Stone Law, P.C. and Feinberg Jackson, filed suit on behalf of Mr. Cockerill, Mr. Newton, Mr. Major and Mr. Benson and a class of similarly situated employees, asserting claims for early and optional retirement benefits as well as claims for fiduciary breach and other violations of ERISA and, alternatively, for violation of state law, based on the Defendants’ self-serving and erroneous interpretation of plan terms and their broken promises.

Case Name

The case name is Cockerill v. Corteva, Inc., No. 21-3966, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Pennsylvania

Status of the Litigation

On August 4, 2022, the district court denied the defendants’ motion to dismiss, holding that plaintiffs are entitled to discovery on their claims.  In July 2023, Plaintiffs filed a second amended complaint and Defendants moved to dismiss the second amended complaint. The Court denied Defendants’ motion on September 1, 2023.

This case will be updated to reflect important developments in the case.