
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, April 13, 1991                   TAG: 9104130179
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: GEORGE KEGLEY BUSINESS EDITOR
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

SINGER SUES EX-OWNER FOR PENSION PLAN FUNDS

Singer Furniture Co. of Roanoke has filed a lawsuit against its former owner, SSMC Inc., in an attempt to recover about $7 million for its employee pension plan.

SSMC, an Edison, N.J. company, "refuses to live up to its contractual obligations," according to the suit filed in U.S. District Court in Roanoke.

Dennis Ammons, president of Singer, and William G. Foster and W. Eugene Matthews, both vice presidents, sued as members of the administrative committee for Singer's pension plan for its hourly employees. Their suit is against SSMC and its investment committee.

Singer officials were not available for comment Friday.

When SSMC established Singer Furniture as a separate company in 1986, a master trust was set up for Singer employees and they participated, according to the suit. The pension fund should have been transferred to Singer in 1989 when SSMC sold the furniture company, the suit said. The buyers were an investor group, including top officers of the furniture firm.

Singer said it had an agreement that SSMC would transfer the pension fund. In May 1990, SSMC refused to make the transfer in an attempt to limit the transfer to accrued benefits, the suit said. Singer claims this change by SSMC was designed to gain the assets in the trust.

The furniture company asked the court to order SSMC to order the immediate transfer of the pension fund assets to the trust.

by CNB