5 retired MLB umpires — including Joe West — sue benefit plan, alleging they are owed more money

NEW YORK (AP) — Five retired umpires have sued their retirement plan from their work for Major League Baseball and the plan’s retirement committee, alleging they are owed additional money.

Joe West, Tom Hallion, Gerry Davis, Larry Vanover and Jerry Layne filed the lawsuit on Sept. 29 in federal court in New York.

They claimed their benefits were not correctly calculated and alleged they should receive additional money under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974. Their lawyer, Paul B. Holmes, said Thursday the amount owed the five is in excess of $2 million.

West said that when he brought up the issue to the retirement committee, he was offered a relatively small sum. West said MLB senior vice president and chief employment counsel Steven Gonzalez told him: “If you don’t like the number, sue us.”

“Does Steve Gonzalez not know my history with dealing with lawsuits?” West said.

West, who worked a record 5,460 regular-season games from 1976-2021, was awarded $500,000 in damages in 2021 for a defamation suit against former All-Star catcher Paul LoDuca.

MLB declined comment Wednesday, citing the pending lawsuit. The suit was first reported by USA Today.

West and Davis retired after the 2021 season, Hallion after 2022, and Layne and Vanover at the end of 2024. The suit was filed against the American Leagues and National Leagues of Professional Baseball Clubs Retirement Income Plan for Umpires and that entity’s retirement committee.

“In some of the issues you could argue it both ways, but in a couple of the issues it was pretty clear that they were just shorting the umpires,” Holmes said. “And so we went through the process and we went through settlement talks. I think these guys were willing to take something less than 100% of what we thought they were entitled to just to avoid litigation and be done with it, but MLB’s offers were not very competitive.”

These umpires sued as individuals. The Major League Baseball Umpires Association is not a party.

“The union wanted to stay out of it,” Holmes said. “It’s not a big union and they’re not pension experts.”

U.S. District Judge Ronnie Abrams scheduled a pretrial conference for Dec. 11.

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