A Dallas Coca-Cola bottler escaped a proposed class action claiming it saddled its 401(k) plan with subpar investment options and misused forfeited retirement plan funds, with a Texas federal judge saying Thursday the workers' allegations were too flimsy to stay in court.

U.S. District Judge Brantley Starr granted Coca-Cola Southwest Beverages LLC's motion to dismiss the Employee Retirement Income Security Act lawsuit alleging it breached its fiduciary duties of prudence and loyalty by mismanaging the 401(k) plan. However, the judge gave the five former employees leading the suit a chance to amend their complaint to address the issues identified by the court.

Monica Del Bosque, Jenna Rodriguez, Nicole Ware, Philip Watterson and Fabiola Solis-Garay claimed that the bottling company kept JPMorgan Chase & Co. target date funds in the plan even though they performed worse than comparable investment options and were more expensive than alternative choices. The workers also claimed the company used unvested funds that were forfeited when an employee left to cover its employer contributions to the plan rather than cover the administrative fees paid by participants.

Judge Starr said, however, that while the JPMorgan funds challenged by the workers were a blend of passively and actively managed investments, the four funds identified in the complaint were all actively managed, which makes them incomparable. According to the opinion, the workers also didn't allege that the company had an imprudent process in selecting the investment options and that "it is not sufficient to simply allege that cheaper options existed."

Judge Starr also said claims that the company misused forfeited funds fell flat because the workers' theory created a benefit that wasn't authorized by ERISA and the plan.

"It is undisputed that Coca-Cola used the forfeitures to the ultimate benefit of the plaintiffs because they were used to pay its contributions directly to plan participants," Judge Starr wrote. "And, as other courts have held, that forecloses a violation of the duty of loyalty absent specific allegations. ... ERISA and the plan do not guarantee plaintiffs the additional benefits they were never promised but nonetheless seek."

Del Bosque, Rodriguez, Ware, Watterson and Solis-Garay filed their lawsuit in May. According to their complaint, the Coca-Cola Southwest Beverages retirement plan had over $543 million in assets and 11,150 participants as of the end of 2023.

The workers claimed that a large portion of the plan's assets were invested in JPMorgan TDFs but that the company failed to keep an eye on the funds' performance, which lagged behind comparable funds and industry benchmarks. According to the complaint, the JPMorgan funds were also more expensive, costing plan participants millions of dollars in retirement savings.

The workers also said that between 2018 and 2023, the company used over $8.1 million in unvested, forfeited funds to cover its contribution obligations to the plan, while only about $74,000 was used to cover administrative expenses paid by plan participants.

Representatives of the parties did not immediately respond to requests for comment Thursday.

The workers are represented by Mark K. Gyandoh and James A. Maro of Capozzi Adler PC.

Coca-Cola Southwest Beverages is represented by Robert Manley of McKool Smith PC and Brian S. Cousin, Jose M. Jara, Casey Katz Pearlman and Erin Garza Kessinger of Fox Rothschild LLP.

The case is Del Bosque et al. v. Coca-Cola Southwest Beverages LLC, case number 3:25-cv-01270, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas.