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On Oct. 3, hundreds of retired and vested members of the BC Rail Pension Plan filed a class action lawsuit against BC Rail Ltd. alleging the railroad improperly allocated a $151.7 million pension-fund surplus.

For more than five years, the pension plan has recorded a surplus, leading BC Rail to amend the plan in 1998, suspending the railroad's and active members' obligations to contribute funds to the plan. However, the changes didn’t provide financial benefits to retired members whose contributions helped create the surplus, the suit claims.

Several pensioners tried and failed to get BC Rail officials to respond to concerns about the surplus allocation, according to a prepared statement.

The suit alleges BC Rail "breached its fiduciary duty" to retired and vested plan members. The plaintiffs are seeking an even reallocation of the surplus among all members.