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On January 14, 2026, the Court issued its Final Order and Judgment formally granting final approval of the settlement. On February 17, 2026, the Court issued a separate order granting Class Counsel’s fee and expense reimbursement petition and request for a special payment for Ms. McCutcheon, the Class representative. The next step is for the Payment Spreadsheet to be finalized and filed with the Court, which is set to occur on March 20, 2026. Colgate then has 90 days, or until June 18, 2026 (the “Payment Date”), to make lump sum payments of the back payments due for prior missed annuity payments, and to begin making month annuity payments for all living Participant and Spouse Class members entitled to payment. Absent special circumstances, if payments are not timely made, Colgate will be liable for 5% interest on payments beyond the Payment Date.

Welcome to the McCutcheon v. Colgate-Palmolive Co. Class Action Website.  

The parties to this federal pension benefit class action – Plaintiff Rebecca McCutcheon on behalf of herself and the Class (defined below), and Defendants Colgate-Palmolive Co. (“Colgate”), Colgate-Palmolive Co. Employees’ Ret. Income Plan (the “Plan”), the Employee Relations Committee of Colgate-Palmolive Co. (the “Committee”), and two former Committee members (collectively, “Defendants”) – reached an agreement to settle it.  The lawsuit, filed in 2016, alleged that the Plan failed to pay Class members, as a required supplement to the lump sums that Class members originally received, residual annuities (“RAs”) calculated in accordance with the 2005 Residual Annuity Amendment (the “RAA”) and the federal pension law known as “ERISA” (the Employee Retirement Income Security Act). 

This website, created by Class counsel, is designed to help you understand the settlement, finally approved by the Court on January 14, 2026, and review copies of the relevant documents.

Under the agreement, Defendants will pay a total of $332 million, to be distributed to the 1,177 members of the Class, net of attorney’s fees and expenses approved by the Court, using the amount that Ms. McCutcheon and Class Counsel argued the Plan should be paying you and should have paid you as an annuity (retroactive to your original lump sum payment date, which includes an adjustment for any prior annuity payments you may have received, and any retroactive annuity payment you may have received around 2014), brought forward with interest, minus a pro rata discount in exchange for Defendants’ agreement to settle. 

Plaintiff and Class counsel agreed to the settlement because it provides an expeditious route to certain recovery for all Class members, and the settlement amount is nearly 100% of the residual annuities Plaintiff and Class Counsel claimed they are owed, brought forward with interest until today, calculated exactly as Plaintiff and Class Counsel claimed they should be calculated.