By Andrew Chung
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) Corp's bid to avoid a lawsuit accusing it of violating federal law in making employee retirement plan investments that cost beneficiaries hundreds of millions of dollars.
The justices will take up Intel's appeal of a lower court ruling that revived the proposed class action lawsuit, initiated by a former employee in 2015, after a judge earlier agreed with the technology company that the litigation was filed too late.
The lawsuit accused the company committees managing the retirement contribution and 401(k) savings plans of breaching their fiduciary duty to the participants by placing an overly heavy emphasis on alternative investments such as hedge funds and private equity, in contrast to peer retirement funds.
The lawsuit was brought by former Intel engineer Christopher Sulyma in San Jose, California federal court.
The dispute centers on the time period that retirement plan participants have to file suit for alleged violations of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), a federal law that requires plan managers to invest prudently.