A federal appeals court ruled that Richard Fuld, the former chief executive officer of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., is not liable to onetime employees who suffered millions of dollars in losses in company stock as the bank descended into bankruptcy, Reuters reported on Friday. The Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan said that Fuld and a Lehman benefit committee were not legally at fault for letting employees participate in an employee stock ownership plan that invested in company stock. Friday's decision upheld a July 2015 ruling by a U.S. district judge and could end one of the last lawsuits stemming from Lehman's September 2008 collapse. The Lehman plaintiffs lost despite a 2014 U.S. Supreme Court decision involving Fifth Third Bancorp that lessened the defenses available to banks in similar cases. A lawyer representing benefit committee members said that the ruling "confirms that fiduciaries are not responsible for market and other forces beyond their control." The case is In re Lehman ERISA Litigation, 2d U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 15-2229.
