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Timothy Hendron, who is believed to have gone on a homicidal rampage at his workplace Thursday, was suing his employer and Fidelity Management Trust Co., the mutual fund giant. He claimed that he and fellow employees were victimized by excessive fees charged in their 401(k) retirement plan.

Hendron, of Webster Groves, was one of four named plaintiffs in a class-action suit brought against their employer, ABB Inc., and Fidelity. The suit was seeking money for 12,800 employees participating in the company’s retirement plan.

Fidelity, the big Boston-based mutual fund company, administered ABB’s 401(k) plan. Basically, the suit claimed that Fidelity was charging excessive and undisclosed fees to employees’ retirement accounts, and ABB let Fidelity get away with it.

Both Fidelity and ABB deny the allegations.

Hendron’s lawyers, at the St. Louis firm of Schlichter, Bogard & Denton, have filed at least 11 similar suits against various companies across the nation.

The suit involves $1.5 billion in investments held by ABB workers as of 2005. Despite that number, Hendron probably would not have been in for a large windfall if the suit were successful. Fees charged by funds in large 401(k) plans rarely exceed 2 percent a year and are often much lower. The suit involved only a portion of those fees.

"Once divided among the participants, it’s going to be a relatively small recovery," said Peter Wiedenbeck, a professor of law at Washington University and a specialist in employee benefits law. "The big stake benefits the lawyers."

Wiedenbeck noted that the law forbids employers from retaliating against employees who file suits such as this one.

A trial of the suit began Tuesday in federal court in Kansas City. It continued Thursday as if nothing had happened. The St. Louis attack wasn’t mentioned in the courtroom as Judge Nanette K. Laughrey heard technical testimony on financial issues.

During breaks, well-dressed lawyers and observers checked on their cell phones and Blackberries for news of the shooting. The judge is hearing the case without a jury.

Hendron’s lawyer, Jerome Schlichter, declined to comment when approached at the courthouse by a Kansas City Star reporter. Hendron had been listed as a potential witness in the trial instant payday loans completely online.

401(k) plans typically offer investors a variety of mutual funds to choose from. Like other suits filed by the Schlichter firm, Hendron’s case involved the complex way that mutual fund companies are paid. All funds charge expenses to cover the cost of trading stocks and bonds, administrative costs and compensation for the fund management company. The expenses are deducted from investors’ fund accounts.

Companies with billions in employee retirement funds can negotiate lower fees than those charged to small investors. The suit claims that ABB failed to negotiate a good deal when it brought in Fidelity to help run its employee retirement plan.

ABB "squandered the plan’s enormous buying power" by letting Fidelity offer the same mutual funds available to the public rather than demanding a lower-cost versions of the funds, according to the suit.

The plaintiffs also claim that Fidelity collected fees without adequately disclosing the reason. They claim that Fidelity sent stock trades through its own brokerage operation, which charged the funds too much money. Fidelity also demanded money from non-Fidelity funds that wanted to be included among the options in ABB’s 401(k) plan, the suit charges. The funds then passed on those fees to ABB employees.

The plaintiffs charge that Fidelity provided free services to an investment plan for highly paid ABB executives because it was making so much money on the employees’ retirement plan.

Anne Crowley, spokeswoman for Fidelity, declined to discuss specifics, but she said the firm did nothing wrong. "We believe we provide valuable service for 401(k) clients," she said. "Fees charged and compensation collected are reasonable."

Such suits are becoming more common. "We’ve seen a lot of action on this specific issue in the last couple of years," said Wiedenbeck, the law professor. "The central theme is that, given the amount of investment involved, the charges were unreasonably high."

It’s still unclear how courts will deal with such claims, he said.

The Kansas City Star contributed to this report.

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