Coca-Cola Executive’s Widow Can Pursue $25,000 Monthly Pension

The widow of a deceased Coca-Cola Co. executive advanced her lawsuit saying she was wrongly denied her husband’s $25,000 monthly pension benefits after his death in 2023.

It’s unclear whether the widow—who married the executive more than a decade after he retired and began receiving pension benefits—qualifies as a “surviving spouse” under the terms of the beverage maker’s executive pension plan, Judge Tiffany R. Johnson said. The term is undefined and ambiguous, and both parties present reasonable interpretations that require further analysis, Johnson said in a Thursday opinion denying Coca-Cola’s motion to dismiss.

The lawsuit centers on monthly retirement payments ...