On September 27, a Missouri federal judge awarded more than $51.7 million to a class of former Anheuser-Busch Co. employees who had been refused the enhanced pensions promised by the company after their unit, Busch Entertainment Group, was sold. The class action lawsuit claimed the company denied the former employees the extra pension benefits promised them if the company let them go within three years after a change in control. The employees claimed that after Anheuser-Busch’s $52-billion merger with InBev in 2008, their employment with Anheuser-Busch was terminated after their unit was sold in 2009.

Among the attorneys representing the former employees are Scott Stitt, Karl Bekeny, Michael Ruttinger, Christine Snyder, and Melissa Kelly. The case and trial counsel were featured in the Legal Lions section of “Law360’s Weekly Verdict: Legal Lions & Lambs.” Read more about the case in Law360 here.