Court says Lucent breached retiree requirements in '03

NEW YORK, June 12 (Reuters) - A U.S. court said on Thursday that Lucent Technologies, now part of Alcatel-Lucent (ALUA.PA), had breached benefit maintenance requirements for the year 2003 related to its retirees' benefits.

But the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey denied the retiree group's motion that Lucent also had breached its requirements from 1999 through 2002 or from Oct. 1 2003 to September 30 2006, according to a court document.

A Lucent spokeswoman said the communications network equipment maker disagreed with the court's finding against it and would "continue to vigorously defend" itself in the case going forward.

Attorneys for the retirees estimated that Lucent's liability for failing to follow the benefits maintenance rule for year 2003 was about $76.3 million, before interest. Lucent said that the estimate was purely speculative.

Alan Sandals, lead attorney for the Lucent retirees said in a statement that the ruling was a significant win and that he believed that "further discovery and analysis will lead to findings of violations during other years as well."

Lucent retirees filed a lawsuit Oct. 24, 2005 charging that Lucent failed to meet its "benefit maintenance" obligations for 1999 through 2003 and its "cost maintenance" obligation for the years 2004 through 2006. (Reporting by Sinead Carew; editing by Carol Bishopric)